Manila, Philippines—The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is continuing its effort to make company registration faster and easier. The Commission recently expanded the list of industries eligible for its one-day registration process. The number of industries allowed to use the One Day Submission and Electronic Registration of Companies (OneSEC) Zuper Easy Registration Online facility has grown from 33 to 81. This has led to a nearly 300% increase in the number of companies registered through OneSEC in July, with 2,938 registrations compared to only 1,014 in May.
"Company registration marks the first step in legitimizing a business, which is why we want to make the process as easy and accessible as possible to our stakeholders," said SEC Chairperson Francis Lim. He added that by streamlining the registration process, the SEC hopes to encourage more entrepreneurs to use a corporate vehicle for their business and eventually raise funds for expansion by tapping the capital market.
OneSEC Facility and Recent SEC Reforms
Launched in 2021, the OneSEC system is a subsystem of the Electronic Simplified Processing of Application for Registration of Company (eSPARC) that uses pre-filled application forms to streamline the registration process. The system has allowed companies to complete the 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. Corporations that are eligible to register via the "pass-through" system include one-person corporations and regular corporations with two to 15 incorporators, a board of directors, and stockholders.
The SEC has been ramping up programs that align with its mandate of improving the ease of doing business in the country. To encourage more micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to register as corporations, the SEC has granted them a 20% discount on registration fees, and up to a 50% discount on filing fees for those seeking to tap the capital market, as per Memorandum Circular (MC) No. 8, Series of 2025.
Other recent reforms include the issuance of MC No. 6, Series of 2025, which reduced the rates for corporate data requests by half in June. Additionally, through MC No. 7, Series of 2025, the Commission has imposed strict timelines for processing applications for permits, licenses, registrations, certificates, clearances, and other authorizations. It also adopted a "deemed approved" policy should the Commission fail to meet its own deadline for review.
"This is just the beginning. We will continue to assess our internal policies to identify the bottlenecks that we need to remove to further improve the ease of doing business, thereby reinforcing the trust and confidence of our stakeholders in our systems," Mr. Lim said.
