Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission shifts company registration to mandatory SEC ZERO online process with no notarization or hard copies

The Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission issued Memorandum Circular No. 3, Series of 2025 mandating the use of SEC Zuper Easy Registration Online (SEC ZERO) for corporate registration via the Electronic Simplified Processing of Application for Registration of Company (eSPARC) and One Day Submission and E-registration of Companies (OneSEC) portals, moving to a fully online and paperless process. The change removes the need for physical signatures, notarization, and submission of hard-copy registration documents, with registrants instead receiving downloadable authenticated documents and a digital certificate of incorporation. From 7 April 2025, applications for all domestic stock corporations, excluding lending and financing companies, must be processed through SEC ZERO, covering both fully Filipino-owned corporations and those with foreign equity, while all Filipino domestic stock corporations may be processed using OneSEC. The workflow requires an Electronic SEC User Registration Environment (eSECURE) account for credentialing (including Tax Identification Number validation by cross-matching with Bureau of Internal Revenue records) and uses the Electronic Submission Authentication Portal (eSAP) to authenticate SEC-required documents through one-time passwords sent to registered mobile numbers and email addresses of incorporators and corporate officers. Lending companies, financing companies, and foreign corporations will continue to use regular eSPARC processing for three months after the memorandum circular’s effectivity, after which mandatory SEC ZERO processing will apply to all types of corporations.