Why can’t Lionsworld accept digital signatures and put electronic documents online?

As many of our clients know, at Lionsworld, we do not accept electronic signatures or digital signatures.

The reason is simple: At the current moment, the only form of digital signature legally recognized in Singapore is your SingPass. Unfortunately, as SingPass is used exclusively for government operations, private companies are currently unable to utilize SingPass for their own functions.

As such, there is no legally recognized means of digital/electronic signature in Singapore at the moment. In order to ensure that a document is to be recognized and binding via a signature, one must still provide an original, hard copy signature of the document. Certain documents, such as incorporation documents, change in directorship and shareholding of a company, must even be notarized and/or properly witnessed in order to ensure that the signature is original and to ensure that the person signing the document meets the legal requirements of identity.

With the same reasoning, documents will not be legally recognized if they are uploaded online. This is true even if the original documents were originally signed in-person.

At least one original signed copy of the company documents should always be kept inside the company minute book in order to ensure that all company documents remain well-maintained, recognized and legally binding to avoid any possible disputes.

Why do other secretarial firms accept digital signature?

As mentioned above, documents signed digitally or electronically are not legally recognized in Singapore.

If there is any dispute raised, the documents will not be recognized under Singapore’s law.

Hence, in order to protect all the members of the company, it is the duty of the company secretary to ensure that all the documents are in order and properly kept. At Lionsworld, we want to ensure that all our clients are well-protected from any possible disputes arising from incomplete or improper documents. Hence, we continue to uphold the standards set by ACRA and the Singapore government to request our clients to sign all their documents originally, and if necessary, have their signatures notarized. 

Stay protected now, choose reliable company secretaries such as Lionsworld. With 38 years of experience in corporate secretarial work, we help to keep all your company documents in order with no hidden costs and upmost professionalism.

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