On or about 20 July 2020, the Companies Act Working Group (CAWG) was set up by the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) in January 2018 to review areas of the Companies Act (CA). The ACRA now invites the public to provide feedback on proposed amendments from 20 July 2020 to 17 August 2020.
The review was as part of the ACRA’s efforts to ensure that Singapore’s corporate laws and regulatory framework remain competitive. The CAWG was chaired by Professor Tan Cheng Han SC and comprised members from local and international law firms, industry regulators and associations. The board had deliberated on the proposed amendments with inputs and feedback from stakeholders.
The report by the CAWG had reviewed 56 issues and recommended 36 legislative reforms, covering the following areas:
- facilitating digitalisation
- types of companies and financial reporting
- matters relating to directors and company secretaries
- safeguarding shareholders’ interests
- share capital and financial assistance
- updating outdated provisions.
The recommendations by the CAWG took into consideration the evolving business environment and developments in technology by companies and sought to create a balance between an effective and efficient regulatory framework and the compliance burden on companies.
Some of the key recommendations by the CAWG are as follows:
- dematerialisation shares and facilitating digitalisation
- reviewing company types and refinements to financial reporting criteria: the CAWG recommended introduction of concepts of “publicly accountable company” and “micro” company. The CAWG also reviewed the requirements to file financial statements and proposed to retain some current requirements.
ACRA has reviewed existing regulatory processes and requirements in the Companies Act, and proposed legislative changes illustrated below:
Source: ACRA, 20 July 2020.
- streamlining and clarifying financial reporting requirements for companies and foreign companies
- removing outdated requirements and clarifying provisions in the CA such as the requirements for public companies limited by shares to hold statutory meetings and their directors to forward a statutory report to members prior to the meeting.
- ACRA will publish a summary of the comments received and the summary will not disclose the identity of the respondents.
The public can access the consultation documents on the ACRA’s website. Members of the public can submit their comments via email.
The ACRA will publish a summary of the comments received and the summary will not disclose the identity of the respondents.
Source: ACRA, 20 July 2020