What Is a UEN and How to Find a Company's UEN
A UEN, or Unique Entity Number, is the identifier Singapore government agencies use for a registered business, company or other organisation. To check a supplier, find a company on this site or fill in a form that asks for one, the UEN is the fastest way in.
Why the UEN exists
The Ministry of Finance introduced the UEN on 1 January 2009 and compares it to the NRIC: it uniquely identifies a registered entity, and it replaced the other identification numbers that different government agencies had issued to that entity. 51 agencies used it from 1 January 2009 and the remaining agencies from 1 July 2009. Businesses and local companies kept their ACRA registration number as their UEN; other entities were told their UEN by the agency that registers or oversees them.
The three UEN formats
The formats below come from the government's UEN format annex. Every UEN ends in a single check letter, and the characters before it differ by entity type:
- Businesses registered with ACRA (sole proprietorships and partnerships): 8 digits plus the check letter, 9 characters in total. The annex example is 12345678A.
- Local companies registered with ACRA: the 4-digit year, a 5-digit running number and the check letter, 10 characters in total (annex example: 199012345X). The structure is visible on this site: Great Eastern General Insurance Limited's UEN, 192000003W, starts with 1920 and BRC Asia Limited's, 193800054G, with 1938.
- All other entities (limited liability partnerships, foreign companies, public accounting firms, societies, representative offices, mutual benefit organisations): a letter and the 2-digit year of issuance, two letters for the entity type, a 4-digit running number and the check letter, 10 characters in total. The annex example, T08LL1234A, is a limited liability partnership. Older entries on the register start with an S instead of the T, for example S68FC1878J.
This site does not calculate a UEN's check letter. A UEN shown on a company page is copied from ACRA's own record.
How to find a company's UEN
Search this site by the company's name with the search box at the top of any page. It matches the start of the current registered name and of former names, so a company that has since been renamed is still found. If the company is live and meets our publication criteria (seedata sources & methodology), its UEN is the copyable chip at the top of its page.
If a company has no page here, because it is a sole proprietorship or partnership or is not yet published, ACRA's Bizfile service is the place to look; its tasks include buying business information about an entity.
UEN and GST registration number
A UEN is not the number IRAS requires on a tax invoice. A GST-registered business must show its GST registration number there, and IRAS's guidance says this number can be the same as the UEN or different (its example: UEN 123456789A and GST registration number M21234567K). Do not assume that the number on an invoice is the supplier's UEN.
What a UEN does and doesn't confirm
A UEN on a document does not confirm that the company is registered, live, or that the document came from it. To confirm that a company is live, check its status on this site's company page or on Bizfile — seehow to check if a Singapore company is registered and live.