The awesome company name that you have decided on will be one of the key brandings attached to your business. You will need to be aware of what names cannot be used, and what names may be used, but only if approved by a referral authority. If a name is submitted for approval by a referral authority, the duration of the company incorporation process will be lengthened (typically up to 14 working days)
The trigger to refer your application to a referral authority is dependent on
- The Company Name selected
- The SSIC (business activity code) selected
Disallowed Names
- Undesirable names
- Names which are identical to the name of any company / sole-proprietorship / forms of partnership regardless of whether the entities are Live Entities or Struck Off/Wound Up/Terminated entities
- Names which are identical to a name being reserved under the Business Registration Act, the Companies Act, the Limited Liability Partnerships Act or Limited Partnerships Act
- Names which the Minister has directed the Registrar not to accept for registration e.g. Temasek
Names and SSIC codes that will trigger a referral approval check
| Name of Referral Authority | Names containing | SSIC / Principal Business activities relating to |
| Board of Architects (BOA) | “architect” | 71111 (Architectural services) |
| Council for Estate Agencies (CEA) | – | 68201 (Real estate agencies and valuation services)
68209 (Real estate activities on a fee or contract basis nec.) |
| International Enterprise Singapore (IE Singapore) | “Physical Rubber”, ”Commodity futures” e.g. “Rubber trading”, “Commodity brokers”, “Commodity Futures Exchange”, “Commodity / Commodities Exchange”, “Futures brokers”, “Commodity Futures”, “Clearing Exchange / House / House Exchange” |
66124 (Commodity and futures brokers and dealers) |
| Ministry of Social and Family Development(MSF) | – | 87022 (Residential care services for children e.g. children’s homes, orphanages)
88913 (Social services for children and youths e.g. youth outreach services, adoption services) 88919 (Social services without accommodation for children, youths and families nec.) |
| Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) (Defence Technology and Resource Office) | “Military” or “Defence” | – |
| Ministry of Education (MOE) (Private Schools Section) | Establishments functioning as a “school” / “learning centre” / “education centre” / “training centre”, offering instruction of an academic nature.Names containing “Academy”, “College”, “Institute”, “Institution”, “University”; and “National”, “Singapore”, will normally be disallowed. |
85211 (Secondary schools)
85212 (Junior colleges and centralised pre-university institutes) 85213 (International and foreign system schools – secondary) 85214 (Schools for the handicapped and educationally sub-normal – secondary) |
| Ministry of Foreign Affairs (ASEAN National Secretariat, Singapore) | “Association of Southeast Asian Nations” or “ASEAN” | – |
| Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) | “Bank” and its derivatives like “banking”, “banque”, “banco”, “Bancaire”, “Banca” and “Banche”
“Finance Company” and “Finance” “Futures Exchange”, “Clearing House” and “Securities Exchange” or titles that resemble these titles such as “stock exchange”, and “clearing |
Activities involving governance from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)
Examples: Banking, Securities & Futures Exchange or Clearing House, Finance companies, Insurance, Money Lending and remittance. |
| Majlis Ugama Islam of Singapore (MUIS) | “Islam”, “Muslim”, “Halal” and their derivatives | Activities involving “Islam”, “Muslim”, “Halal” and their derivatives |
Singapore Police Force(Licensing Division) |
Activities involving arms and ammunitions
20299 (Manufacture of other chemical products nec.) 25200 (Manufacture and repair of weapons and ammunition, e.g. ordance and accessories) |
|
| Singapore Tourism Board (STB) | “Merlion”, “eMerlion” | activities involving “Tourist”, “Travel”
50011 (Sightseeing cruise services) 52299 (Other transportation support activities nec) 79102 (Travel agencies and tour operators – mainly outbound) 79103 (Ticketing agencies – including airline, tour bus and cruise ship) |
| The Law Society of Singapore | “Law”, “Law Corporation”, “LLC”, “Legal”, “Lawyer(s)”, “Advocate(s)”, “Solicitor(s)” | Activities involving legal activities
69100 (Legal activities) |
