The Philippines is recognized as having one of the best company registration systems in the world, owing to the digital innovations adopted by the Securities and Exchange Commission in its Electronic Simplified Processing of Application for Registration of Company (eSPARC) program.
The agency said it received the 2023 Innovation Award from the Corporate Registers Forum in Malta just last week.
The CRF Innovation Award recognizes CRF members that enacted unique and creative initiatives that empower internal and external stakeholders, increase their effectiveness, productivity, and efficiency, streamline the processes and improve customer satisfaction.
The CRF is an association of international corporate registries aiming to provide its members the opportunity to review the latest developments in corporate business registers internationally as well as exchange experiences and information on their present and future operations.
The SEC joins five other international regulators in receiving the commendation from the CRF.
These were the Singapore’s Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority, Kazakhstan’s Astana Financial Services Authority, Maldives’ Ministry of Economic Development, Nigeria’s Corporate Affairs Commission and the Agency of the Republic of Slovenia for Public Legal Records and Related Services.
The CRF also recognized under the excellence category the Turkey Ministry of Trade – Board of Directors Decision Module and General Assembly Decision Module, as well as the United Kingdom, Companies House – Register of Overseas Entities.
“The SEC is proud to accept this award, as it showcases not only our dedication to easing the doing of business in the country but also the benefits of embracing digital transformation,” SEC chairman Emilio B. Aquino said.
“We will continue to improve and innovate our existing and soon-to-be launched digital innovations to make our services easily accessible and efficient to the benefit of the investing public, the Philippine corporate sector, and the economy as a whole,” he said.
Launched in 2021, the eSPARC is the automated system developed by the SEC for company registration.
With the eSPARC in place, the SEC reduced the company registration process from 16 steps in 34 days to only three days.
Its subsystem, the One-Day Submission and Electronic Registration of Companies (OneSEC), further sped up the process in record time of 1 minute and 14 seconds from the start of application to the receipt of a digital Certificate of Incorporation.
