SEC allows one-day registration for foreign firms

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Wednesday announced that foreign firms seeking to incorporate in the country may now register their businesses with the corporate regulator within a day.

In a statement, the SEC said it expanded the type of companies that may register through the One Day Submission and Electronic Registration of Companies (OneSEC) Zuper Easy Registration Online facility to include corporations with foreign equity “in a bid to further streamline the registration process.”

“Streamlining the company registration process for foreign entities is a crucial component of our thrust to improve the ease of doing business in the country,” said SEC Chairperson Francis Lim.

“By expanding the coverage of OneSEC to foreign entities, we want to send a strong signal to the international business community that the Philippines is open for business, and hopefully encourage them to set up shop here,” he added. 

During the first half of 2025, the SEC said it has already registered a total of 145 foreign corporations.

The number is expected to increase with the implementation of the one-day registration process, it said.

Launched in 2021, OneSEC is a subsystem of the Electronic Simplified Processing of Application for Registration of Company (eSPARC) that utilizes pre-filled application forms to speed up the registration process.

Through the system, applicants can complete the company registration process in as fast as one minute and 14 seconds, from the start of the application to the receipt of a digital certificate of incorporation.

The SEC said one-person corporations and regular corporations with two to 15 incorporators, a board of directors, and stockholders are eligible to register via the “pass through” or one-day registration system.

The corporate regulator added it has also expanded the industry classifications allowed to register through the system to 81 from 33.

In June, the agency issued Memorandum Circular (MC) No. 6, Series of 2025, to reduce the rates for corporate data requests by half.

Also, with the issuance of MC No. 7, Series of 2025, the SEC said it implemented strict timelines in the processing of applications for permits, licenses, and registrations, among others, and adopted a “deemed approved” policy if the Commission fails to observe its own review timeline.

The corporate regulator said it has also provided micro, small, and medium enterprises a 20% discount in registration fees to encourage them to incorporate, as well as up to a 50% discount in the filing fee for firms that aim to enter the capital market, through MC No. 8, Series 2025. —VBL, GMA Integrated News