The Securities and Exchange Commission has expanded its list of entities eligible to incorporate firms in the Philippines within a day, now including corporations with foreign equity.
“By expanding the coverage of OneSEC (One Day Submission and Electronic Registration of Companies) to foreign entities, we want to send a strong signal to the international business community that the Philippines is open for business—and hopefully encourage them to set up shop here,” SEC Chairman Francis Lim said in a statement issued Tuesday.
Lim emphasized that streamlining the company registration process for foreign entities is a crucial component of improving the ease of doing business in the country.
The announcement follows the expansion of industries allowed under the OneSEC facility, which has grown from 33 to 81.
In the first half of the year, the SEC said it had already registered a total of 145 foreign corporations.
“The number is expected to increase with the implementation of the faster registration process,” it added.
Launched in 2021, OneSEC is a subsystem of the Electronic Simplified Processing of Application for Registration of Company (eSPARC), which utilizes pre-filled application forms to accelerate the registration process.
Through the system, applicants can complete company registration in as little as one minute and 14 seconds—from the start of the application to the receipt of a digital certificate of incorporation.
One-person corporations and regular corporations with two to 15 incorporators, board members, and stockholders are eligible to register via the “pass-through” system.
The SEC continues to implement measures to further improve the ease of doing business in the Philippines.
In June, it issued Memorandum Circular (MC) No. 6, Series of 2025, reducing rates for corporate data requests by half.
Meanwhile, with the issuance of MC No. 7, Series of 2025, the SEC implemented strict timelines for processing applications for permits, licenses, and registrations, among others—and adopted a “deemed approved” policy if the Commission fails to observe its own review deadlines.
The SEC has also granted micro, small, and medium enterprises a 20 percent discount on registration fees to encourage incorporation, as well as up to a 50 percent discount on filing fees for firms aiming to enter the capital market, through MC No. 8, Series of 2025.
