SEC says corporate registration system to be completed by May

THE SECURITIES and Exchange Commission (SEC) aims to complete the automation of the corporate registration process next month, as the agency plans to release roughly 2,000 names that applicants can choose from to hasten their application while the migration is ongoing.

SEC Chairperson Teresita J. Herbosa told reporters last week that the corporate regulator has encountered problems in its front line services last month after the “obsolete” system, which has been in place since 2002, shut down several times.

The backlog has been reduced to 800 applications from a high of 5,000 at one point, Ms. Herbosa said.

“The corporate registration system will be operational by May so we just want the public to be patient because once that is operational, it will be a complete automated system from name verification to payment,” she said.

The SEC is likewise coming out with a list of 2,000 corporate names that applicants can choose from to speed up the verification process.

“I got it from our counterparts in Spain. If you are in a hurry, gusto mo ba maghintay ng one month kasi obsolete na ’ yung name verification system ( do you want to wait one month because the name verification system is obsolete)?” Ms. Herbosa said.

The new system will reduce the time it will take to incorporate a business to only 10 minutes in line with its vision to become a “paperless” organization.

At present, those who are incorporating companies are required to transact businesses personally at the SEC headquarters along EDSA or its satellite offices at Ali Mall in Cubao, Robinsons Galleria in Ortigas, SM City Manila and SM City North EDSA in Quezon City.

The SEC hopes this reform will further boost the country’s ranking in the global Doing Business report published by the World Bank, she added.

In the latest edition of the report published last year, the Philippines climbed four notches from 103rd to 99th out of 190 economies.

The Doing Business report measures the number of steps, the time it takes, and the costs incurred to start and run a business in a country.