SEC eases entry for foreign businesses

To attract more foreign investment, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has expanded its one-day online registration system to corporations with foreign equity.

The Commission said Wednesday its One Day Submission and Electronic Registration of Companies (OneSEC) Zuper Easy Registration Online facility now accepts applications from foreign-owned corporations.

“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,” SEC Chairperson Francis Lim said.

“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.

The SEC registered 145 foreign corporations in the first half of the year, a number seen to rise with the faster registration process.

Launched in 2021 as part of the Electronic Simplified Processing of Application for Registration of Company (eSPARC), OneSEC uses pre-filled forms to cut red tape. Registration can be completed in as little as one minute and 14 seconds, from application to receipt of a digital certificate of incorporation.

The platform is available to one-person corporations and regular corporations with two to 15 incorporators, board members, and stockholders. The SEC also widened the range of industries that can register through the system to 81 from 33.

The initiative is part of broader reforms to streamline regulation. In June, the SEC halved rates for corporate data requests through Memorandum Circular (MC) No. 6, Series of 2025.

It also enforced stricter timelines for processing permits, licenses, and registrations under MC No. 7, Series of 2025, adopting a “deemed approved” policy if deadlines are missed.

Meanwhile, MC No. 8, Series of 2025 grants micro, small and medium enterprises a 20 percent discount on registration fees and up to 50 percent off filing fees for firms entering the capital market.