HomeNominee Director
A named individual takes the resident director seat your company is required to fill, with no part in running the business. There is a security deposit, and this page explains what it is for.
Due diligence runs before any nominee takes the seat. The route only changes how you give us the information.
Tell us who owns the company, what it does and where the money comes from. We reply with the due diligence result and a written quote.
Have passport copies for every shareholder and director, and a line on where the funding comes from.
Apply online
Hover or tap a step to see that screen.
Walk through your structure before you apply. Your chartered secretary explains what a nominee can and cannot do, and what the deposit covers.
Worth it if you have
A security deposit applies on both routes. The written quote states the amount and when it comes back.
The arrangement exists to satisfy one statutory requirement. Everything outside that requirement stays with you, including every commercial decision and every payment the company makes.
Every Singapore company needs at least one director ordinarily resident in Singapore. A named individual from our side takes that seat and is recorded at ACRA as a director of your company, which is what the requirement asks for.
Under the Companies Act a director carries real duties and real liability for the company's filings and conduct, and the nominee is a real director. The security deposit covers that exposure, held while the appointment runs.
Signing your contracts, approving your spending, holding a bank mandate or taking part in trading decisions are all outside the role. Anyone describing a nominee who signs for the bank is describing a different arrangement, and a riskier one.
Resolutions that name a director, annual return declarations and consents to act are signed where the law asks for a director's signature. Those signatures follow a review of the paperwork, which is part of what the deposit sits behind.
The appointment is meant to end. Once you or an employee becomes ordinarily resident here, or you appoint another local director, the nominee resigns and ACRA is updated. Give notice and the resignation is filed in order.
A nominee who has stopped following what the company does is a risk to both sides. Once a year the accounts, the filings and any change in activity are looked over, and anything affecting the appointment is raised.
Nobody takes on director liability for a company they have not examined. Expect questions about ownership, funding and what the business sells before the seat is filled.
Who owns it, where the money comes from, what it sells and in which countries. Higher risk activities, ownership chains that run through several entities and regulated sectors change both the answer and the price, and some we decline.
About 30 minutesIdentity and source of funds checks run on the shareholders and the officers. Once those are clear you get a written quote covering the annual fee and the security deposit, so both numbers sit in front of you before anything is signed.
A few working daysThe engagement letter sets out the nominee's duties, the limits on them, the deposit amount and the conditions for its return. Read the limits closely, because that section protects you as much as it protects us.
Before the appointmentThe consent to act is signed and the appointment is lodged, after which your company has its resident director on record. From that point, filings needing a director's signature go through a review before they are signed.
Same day as signingThere is no list price, because the fee tracks risk rather than company size. A dormant holding company and a business moving client money are different propositions for the person whose name goes on the register at ACRA.
The security deposit sits alongside the annual fee. It is held rather than spent, and the engagement letter states the amount, what would draw on it, and the conditions for returning it once the appointment ends.
Quoted for your company
Agreed in writing before we start
Ask for a quotePrices exclude GST. The security deposit is separate from the fee and is returned under the conditions written into the engagement letter. ACRA filing charges are passed on at cost.
Because the nominee is a real director with real duties under the Companies Act, and stays liable for the company's filings and conduct while appointed. If a company is abandoned or a filing obligation is ignored, the nominee is the person ACRA looks at. The deposit covers that exposure and is returned under the conditions in the engagement letter.
No. The nominee has no signing authority over trading decisions, approves no payments and holds no bank mandate. You keep the shares, the bank access and the running of the business. The role exists to meet the resident director requirement and stops there.
Until someone connected to the company is ordinarily resident in Singapore. For founders relocating, that is usually the gap between incorporation and an Employment Pass being approved. Where there is no plan to place anyone here, the appointment runs year to year and the fee is annual.
No. A co-founder or employee who is ordinarily resident here is a director in the ordinary sense, involved in running the business. The nominee, by contrast, holds the statutory seat and stays out of operations. If someone on your team already lives in Singapore, you do not need a nominee at all, and we will say so.
It is returned once the resignation is filed with ACRA and the filings covering the appointment period are dealt with. The engagement letter lists the conditions in full. An overdue annual return from that period is the usual reason a return is held up, so keeping filings current is in your own interest.
A provider quoting a nominee with no deposit is either pricing the risk somewhere else or has not thought about it. Ask us for the amount and the return conditions, then compare properly.
Tell us what you need and we will point you to the right answer, or bring in one of our chartered professionals. Out of hours you get a reply first thing the next working day.