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Everything to Know About the Register of Nominee Directors

Everything to Know About the Register of Nominee Directors

Appointing a nominee director is a standard business practice, especially among international companies or corporations that maintain subsidiaries overseas. A nominee director is an individual a company appoints to act as a director on behalf of its owner. A Singapore nominee director is usually assigned to help businesses meet the country’s incorporation requirements, i.e., a company should have a director who is a resident of Singapore.

When appointing a nominee director in Singapore, a company needs to comply with specific requirements, such as the maintenance of a Register of Nominee Directors (ROND). This requirement took effect on 31 March 2017 and provides that a company must set up and maintain a ROND unless it is exempted from doing so. This ROND must be kept by the company either at its registered business address or the office address of its appointed agent. In this article, we discuss the ROND requirement and what to look out for.

Nominee director’s duties regarding ROND

Under Singapore law, a nominee director is required to inform the company that they are a nominee and should provide details of their nominator either within 30 days after the incorporation date of the company or 30 days after they become a nominee. The nominee director must likewise inform the company when they cease to be a nominee within 30 days after the termination or when there is a change in the details provided to the company within 30 days after the occurrence of the change.

Company’s duties regarding ROND

Like the nominee director, the company also has certain obligations to fulfil in relation to the ROND. For one, a company must enter all the information – including updates – it has received from nominee directors into its register within seven days after the receipt of such information. Even if a company has no nominee director, it is still mandated to maintain a ROND and stipulate the following in the ROND: “As of 2025, [company name] has not received any information on the company’s nominee directors.”

Information to include in the ROND

As mentioned earlier, a nominee director is mandated to provide the company with certain details about their nominators as well as some relevant supporting documents. All of this must then be entered into the ROND. If the nominator is a natural person, the following details should be provided:

  • Full name and aliases, if any;
  • Address of residence;
  • Nationality;
  • Passport or ID number;
  • Birth date;
  • Date when the individual became the nominator; and
  • Date when the individual ceased to be the nominator.

On the other hand, if the nominator is a corporate or juridical entity, the following particulars must be provided:

  • Name of the corporate nominator;
  • Unique corporation number, if any;
  • Address of the corporate nominator’s registered office;
  • Corporate nominator’s legal form, if applicable;
  • Statute under any jurisdiction where the corporate nominator is created or incorporated;
  • Corporate entity register’s name of the jurisdiction where the corporate nominator is created or incorporated;
  • Registration or ID number of the corporate nominator;
  • Date when the juridical entity became the nominator; and
  • Date when the juridical entity ceased to be the nominator.

Exemptions from maintaining ROND

Not all companies are required to maintain a ROND since Singapore law allows certain exemptions. Specifically, a company is permitted not to maintain a ROND if it is any of the following:

  • A public company whose shares are listed for quotation in an authorised exchange in the country;
  • A Singapore-registered financial institution;
  • An entirely government-owned company;
  • A company entirely owned by a statutory body created under a public statute for a public purpose;
  • An entirely owned subsidiary of any of the companies previously described;
  • A company whose shares are listed on a securities exchange in a territory or country outside Singapore and is subject to requirements regarding regulatory disclosure and requirements concerning sufficient transparency about its beneficial owners.

Conclusion

Unless exempted, maintaining the ROND is an essential requirement for a company to comply with to ensure the validity and efficiency of its nominee director appointment. Essentially, the purpose of having a ROND is to enable a company to have a complete index of its nominee directors and the particulars of their nominators. This will not just ensure the company’s compliance with statutory regulations but may also improve its business efficiency.

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