ACRA » ACRA’s New Contact Address Regime

ACRA’s New Contact Address Regime

The ACRA (Registry and Regulatory Enhancements) Bill 2024 was passed on 2 July 2024 by Parliament. ACRA will be introducing the use of Contact Address to enhance the protection of residential addresses filed with the Registrar of ACRA. Currently, the law mandates that residential addresses of company officers be disclosed to the public through ACRA’s registers.

By the end of 2024, a Contact Address will be shown in ACRA’s public records instead of the residential address. All company officers will need to provide a Contact Address in addition to their residential address if they do not wish to have their residential address disclosed to the public (e.g. ACRA business profile).

What you need to do ?

We strongly encourage company officers to file an Alternate Address with ACRA before December 2024. All existing alternate addresses filed with ACRA will be automatically converted to Contact Address by the end of the year.

This helps to protect sensitive information of your residential address from being known to the public when they can purchase the Business Profile of your company on BizFile.

What is a Contact Address and what you need to know ?

1. A Contact Address is a location within the same jurisdiction as your residence where you can be contacted (e.g. your office) and it cannot be a P.O. Box address. You are free to use your residential address as your Contact Address. You can click on the link in ACRA to determine the position holders who can provide contact address.
2. Contact Address is mandatory for all position holders, public accountants and shareholders.
3. If you have previously provided an Alternate Address or would like your residential address to also be reflected as your Contact Address, no action is required from you.
4. You only need to file a Contact Address for one of the entities. The same Contact Address will be updated for all associated entities. This is similar to the Alternate Address concept in current BizFile+
5. The Contact Address must be in the same jurisdiction as the residential address. For example, if your residential address is in Malaysia, you have to provide a contact address in Malaysia.
6. The Contact Address can be your office address within the same jurisdiction.
7. You can only file an Alternate Address in the current BizFile+ system. No action is required if you wish your residential address or existing Alternate Address to become your Contact Address when the new regime commences in the new Bizfile system at the end of 2024. You will be able to update your Contact Address at any time under the new Contact Address regime.
8. If you do not have an Alternate Address, your residential address will be converted to your Contact Address when the new regime commences at the end of 2024.
9. Official correspondences will continue to be sent to the residential address by ACRA, not the Contact Address.
10. Individuals who are only shareholders are not eligible to file an Alternate Address / Contact Address. However, they are eligible for the Contact Address regime. A shareholder’s address that is currently displayed in ACRA’s public records will be automatically converted to a Contact Address upon the commencement of the Contact Address regime by end of 2024. Shareholders can choose to provide another address by engaging their company secretaries or Corporate Service Providers to file the update via ACRA’s “Change in Particulars of Shareholders” eService.
11. Contact Address regime will apply to VCCs at a late stage. The fee waiver for filing of Alternate Addresses in VCCs will be made known later.
12. Contact Address regime does not apply to corporate shareholders.

Who can provide Contact Address ?