By law, any Singaporean company is required to have at least one local director (resident of Singapore) in staff. In connection with this, foreigners when registering a company in Singapore registering a company in Singapore, in in most cases, they are forced to use the services of a nominee director.
Having to rely on an unknown person from a faraway country scares a lot of people and it's understandable. Let's see how these fears are justified and what you need to do to protect yourself from possible misconduct on the part of the local (nominee) director.
First, let's start with the fact that Singapore is a serious country with law-abiding citizens and a very low crime rate. Secondly, all actions on companies are carried out exclusively on personal identifier of the resident and company (SingPass and CorPass) and their can be tracked instantly. Thirdly, you don't have to give the right to sign on the bank account to your local director*. As for fines for unauthorized actions, they are severely punished by the Law with a prison term of up to 2 years and/or fines from 5,000 to 50,000 dollars SGD.
According to our many years of experience, in the absolute majority of cases it is not to protect the client from the nominal director, but nominal director from the client, because according to the Law on In companies in Singapore, the duties of a nominee director are the same as the duties of an actual director and some not respectable companies take advantage of this.
If this didn't convince you, we have prepared a small guide specially for you on how to protect yourself from illegal actions of the local director in 5 steps:
* — for verified directors, we recommend making limited access to the bank account (for example, in view mode or within within a certain small amount).# nbsp;
For what it needs:
making changes to data on the company, such as for example, changing the address or change/adding directors and shareholders (and such needs arise with enviable regularity), then if your nominee director is not signer of the bank account, he will not be able to help you and you will have to either fly yourself or send the original documents by express mail, which# nbsp;involves for you large additional time and financial costs.
Having to rely on an unknown person from a faraway country scares a lot of people and it's understandable. Let's see how these fears are justified and what you need to do to protect yourself from possible misconduct on the part of the local (nominee) director.
First, let's start with the fact that Singapore is a serious country with law-abiding citizens and a very low crime rate. Secondly, all actions on companies are carried out exclusively on personal identifier of the resident and company (SingPass and CorPass) and their can be tracked instantly. Thirdly, you don't have to give the right to sign on the bank account to your local director*. As for fines for unauthorized actions, they are severely punished by the Law with a prison term of up to 2 years and/or fines from 5,000 to 50,000 dollars SGD.
According to our many years of experience, in the absolute majority of cases it is not to protect the client from the nominal director, but nominal director from the client, because according to the Law on In companies in Singapore, the duties of a nominee director are the same as the duties of an actual director and some not respectable companies take advantage of this.
If this didn't convince you, we have prepared a small guide specially for you on how to protect yourself from illegal actions of the local director in 5 steps:
- Sign an agreement with the director on the rights and obligations of a nominee director (Nominee Director Agreement), which clearly defines the rights and obligations of the parties, including the provision on that # nbsp;he does not has the right to manage and dispose of the company.
- Not give the nominee director the right to sign on the company's bank account*.
- Work only with verified directors whom you know personally and for whom you can vouch
- Work only through reliable corporate providers who can guarantee your full legal protection.
- Carry out a full background check on your prospective director, from which you can find out if an important point that directly affects your chances of opening a bank account)
* — for verified directors, we recommend making limited access to the bank account (for example, in view mode or within within a certain small amount).# nbsp;
For what it needs:
- Significantly increases your chances of opening a bank account.
- If you need any help in resolving issues with the bank,
- such as issuing/reissuing bank tokens, requesting bank statements
- for preparation of financial statements, resolving issues on pending transactions,
making changes to data on the company, such as for example, changing the address or change/adding directors and shareholders (and such needs arise with enviable regularity), then if your nominee director is not signer of the bank account, he will not be able to help you and you will have to either fly yourself or send the original documents by express mail, which# nbsp;involves for you large additional time and financial costs.