SEC unveils new digital services

MANILA, Philippines — Company registration in the country has become more efficient as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) introduces new services that form part of its continuing digital initiatives.

The SEC recently unveiled the third wave of its digital initiatives, which it has been embarking on since 2020.

The commission’s five new digital services are the SEC Zuper Easy Registration Online (ZERO), Electronic Submission Authentication Portal (eSAP), SEC Foreign Investments Registration Station (FIRST) Green Lane Unit, Electronic Application For Modification Of Entity Name And Data (eAMEND) and Swift Corporate and Other Records Exchange (SCORE) Protocol.

“We are harnessing digital technologies not only to improve the ease of doing business. Ultimately, the SEC is harnessing digital technologies to champion sustainability and help accelerate the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals,” SEC chairperson Emilio Aquino said.

The SEC ZERO is a service under the Electronic Simplified Processing of Application for Registration of Company (eSPARC), which allows applicants to digitally authenticate system-generated forms through the eSAP platform.

eSAP is integrated with SEC ZERO for the digital authentication of documents, removing the need to affix wet signatures and submit hard copies of registration requirements.

It uses one-time passwords to proceed with the electronic authentication of the documents.

The SEC said digitally authenticated forms have the same validity as the original certificate, eliminating the need for physical signing and notarization of the registration documents.

With digital authentication, the commission said SEC ZERO and eSAP enable applicants to register their companies anytime and from anywhere, even abroad.

The commission has also created the SEC FIRST Green Lane Unit to boost foreign investments in the country.

The unit will cater to entities under the Foreign Investment Act, as well as foreign and multinational companies. It will also process registration, licensing and amendment of covered entities, among others.

The SEC said foreign-owned applications would no longer have to be queued together with all other applications in the online registry as they will be redirected to a special lane of the SEC FIRST unit, making the processing time more efficient.

Meanwhile, eAMEND will be the online portal that will facilitate the acceptance, processing and approval of payment for amendment applications of corporations.

The platform facilitates the issuance of the digital copy of the certificate of amendment of domestic stock and non-stock corporation almost instantly for certain transactions.

Further, the SEC developed the SCORE Protocol, which will handle requests of partner regulatory and enforcement agencies for company information such as their articles of incorporation, general information sheet and audited financial statements.

Since 2020, the commission has undertaken steps to not only make its operations more sustainable but also to improve the ease of doing business through digital transformation.

The first digital platforms launched included the eSPARC, its subsystem One day Submission and E-registration of Companies, Electronic Filing and Submission Tool and Electronic System for Payment to SEC.

The SEC said these services have automated its key processes in company registration, reports submission and payment of fees.

Last year, President Marcos launched the second wave of SEC digital initiatives, which included the Electronic SEC Universal Registration Environment, Electronic SEC Education, Analysis and Research Computing Hub, SEC API Marketplace, Electronic Registry Application for Market Participants and SEC Check App 2.0.

According to the commission, these initiatives are estimated to have reduced its carbon footprint by over 3,500 tons from 2021 to 2023.

It was also able to save more than 10,000 trees, equivalent to about 85 million sheets of paper that would have been used in manual transactions during the same period.