Most guides tell you a UEN is Singapore's business identifier and send you off to search it.
They miss the useful part. A UEN is not opaque. It encodes the year of registration and, for many entity types, what kind of entity it is.
Learn the three formats and you can read a counterparty's age and legal form straight off the number, in two seconds, without opening anything. A supplier claiming fifteen years of trading whose UEN starts 2024 has a problem you have just spotted for free.
Here is how to decode one.
What a UEN is
The Unique Entity Number is Singapore's single business identifier. One number, used by every government agency: ACRA, IRAS, CPF, customs, licensing bodies.
That is unusual and worth pausing on. The UK spreads the same job across five different numbers issued by three different bodies. Singapore issues one.
Every registered entity has exactly one UEN, and it does not change. Not on a change of name, not on a change of directors, not on restructuring.
The three formats
| Format | Pattern | Length | Who it belongs to |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | nnnnnnnnX | 9 | Businesses registered with ACRA before 2009 |
| B | yyyynnnnnX | 10 | Local companies registered with ACRA |
| C | TyyPQnnnnX | 10 | All other entities |
In every format, the final character X is a check character.
Format A: the pre-2009 marker
Nine characters, eight digits and a check character.
If a UEN has nine characters rather than ten, the business was registered with ACRA before 2009, when the UEN system was introduced. Everything registered since carries a ten character number.
That single observation gives you a floor on the entity's age at no cost.
Format B: local companies
Ten characters, opening with the four digit year of incorporation.
202412345X was incorporated in 2024. 199812345X in 1998. There is nothing to look up.
This is the format you will meet most often, because it covers Singapore private limited companies.
Format C: everything else
Ten characters, opening with T, then a two digit year, then a two character entity type code,
then a sequence and a check character.
T22LL0056C breaks down as: T prefix, 22 for 2022, LL for limited liability partnership, 0056
sequence, C check character.
So a Format C number tells you both when the entity was registered and what it is.
The entity type codes
This is the table nobody publishes in full. These are the commonly encountered codes.
| Code | Entity type |
|---|---|
LL | Limited liability partnership |
LP | Limited partnership |
FC | Foreign company branch |
UF | Foreign entity registered with ACRA |
SS | Society |
CC | Charity |
MC | Management corporation |
SM | Subsidiary management corporation |
TU | Trade union |
TC | Town council |
GA | Organ of state, ministry or department |
PA | People's Association service |
PB | Grassroots unit |
FB | Bank representative office |
FN | Insurance representative office |
RP | Foreign law practice representative office |
HS | Hospital |
MH | Maternity home |
CH | Commercial home |
VH | Voluntary welfare home |
CL | Clinical laboratory |
XL | X-ray laboratory |
CX | Both clinical and X-ray laboratory |
The authoritative and complete list is maintained on uen.gov.sg. If you meet a code not shown here, check there rather than guessing.
Why this matters commercially
FB and FN are the two worth knowing.
A representative office is not a trading entity. It cannot conclude contracts or generate revenue in
Singapore. If you are about to sign with something whose UEN carries FB or FN, you are dealing with
a representative office, not an operating company, and the contract needs to reflect that.
FC tells you the same thing in a different way: you are contracting with the Singapore branch of a
foreign company, so the legal counterparty is the foreign parent.
Who issues UENs
ACRA issues most of them. It is not the only issuer, which is why some UENs look unfamiliar.
| Issuer | Entities |
|---|---|
| ACRA | Companies, businesses, LLPs, LPs, foreign branches |
| Enterprise Singapore (ESG) | Representative offices, some non-profits |
| MINDEF | Foreign military units |
| Ministry of Law | Foreign law practices |
| Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS) | Mosques, madrasahs |
Plus the various agencies that license healthcare facilities, societies and town councils.
If a UEN does not appear in a BizFile search, the entity may have been registered by an agency other than ACRA. That is not a red flag by itself.
Where to find a UEN
| Source | Note |
|---|---|
| BizFile search | Free, by entity name |
| The entity's invoices | Singapore businesses must display it |
| The entity's website | Commonly in the footer |
| Business profile | The paid S$5.50 extract shows it |
| Data.gov.sg | The full registered entity dataset, free and downloadable |
That last row is worth knowing. Singapore publishes the registered entity list as open data. If you need to check many UENs, download the dataset rather than running searches one by one.
What a UEN does not tell you
Decoding is a first pass, not a verification.
| The UEN tells you | The UEN does not tell you |
|---|---|
| The year of registration | Whether the entity is still active |
| The entity type, in Format C | Who the directors are |
| Which agency registered it | Who the shareholders are |
| That the number is well formed | Whether the business actually trades |
For status, directors and shareholders you need BizFile, and the directors and shareholders sit behind the S$5.50 Business Profile.
The workflow that makes sense: decode the number first, because it is free and instant, then spend the S$5.50 only if the decode raises a question or the deal justifies it.
Common mistakes
Assuming a nine character UEN is malformed. It is a pre-2009 registration, and it is valid.
Reading Format C's yy as a sequence number. It is the year. T22 means 2022.
Assuming every UEN comes from ACRA. Several agencies issue them, and a UEN absent from BizFile is not necessarily fake.
Treating a representative office as a trading company. FB, FN and RP codes should change how
you draft the contract.
Confusing the UEN with a GST registration number. Since 2019 the GST registration number for most entities is the UEN itself, but GST registration is a separate status you have to check, not something the number proves.
How Singapore compares
| Jurisdiction | Single identifier | Encodes anything useful |
|---|---|---|
| Singapore | ✅ UEN, every agency | ✅ Year and entity type |
| Estonia | ✅ Registrikood | ❌ Sequential |
| Hong Kong | ❌ Company number and Business Registration Number | ❌ |
| United Kingdom | ❌ Five numbers, three issuers | ❌ |
| Ireland | ❌ CRO number and tax reference | ❌ |
| United States | ❌ EIN, plus a state number, no public register | ❌ |
Singapore and Estonia are the only two in this series with a genuine single identifier. Singapore is the only one where the number itself carries information.
The summary
| You want to | Answer |
|---|---|
| Read the year of registration | ✅ Free, from the number |
| Read the entity type | ✅ Free, Format C codes |
| Know if the entity predates 2009 | ✅ Nine characters means yes |
| Confirm it is currently active | ⚠️ BizFile search, free |
| See directors and shareholders | 💰 S$5.50 Business Profile |
| Check many UENs at once | ✅ Data.gov.sg open dataset |
| Know whether it is GST registered | ❌ Separate check |
Frequently asked questions
What is a UEN in Singapore?
The Unique Entity Number, Singapore's single business identifier, used by every government agency. Each registered entity has one, and it does not change through name changes, restructuring or changes of director.
What does a UEN look like?
Three formats. Nine characters for businesses registered with ACRA before 2009. Ten characters starting with the four digit year for local companies. Ten characters starting with T for all other entities, where the two characters after the year identify the entity type.
Can you tell the year a company was registered from its UEN?
Yes. Local companies carry the four digit year at the start. Format C entities carry a two digit year after the T. A nine character UEN means registration before 2009.
What does LL mean in a UEN?
Limited liability partnership. It is the entity type code in a Format C number: T22LL0056C is an LLP registered in 2022.
Who issues UENs?
ACRA issues most. Enterprise Singapore issues them to representative offices and some non-profits, the Ministry of Defence to foreign military units, the Ministry of Law to foreign law practices, and the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore to mosques and madrasahs, among others.
Is the UEN the same as the GST registration number?
Since 2019 the GST registration number for most entities is the UEN itself, but having a UEN does not mean the entity is GST registered. That is a separate status to check.
How do I find a company's UEN?
Search BizFile by name, free of charge. It also appears on the entity's invoices, which Singapore businesses must display, and usually on their website.
Can I check many UENs at once?
Yes. Singapore publishes the registered entity list as open data on data.gov.sg, which is faster than running individual searches.
What if a UEN does not appear in BizFile?
It may have been issued by an agency other than ACRA, such as Enterprise Singapore or the Ministry of Law. That alone is not a sign of a problem.
Does the UEN tell me if a company is still active?
No. It confirms registration and encodes the year and entity type, but status requires a BizFile search, which is free.
Sources
- UEN: official Singapore government site
- ACRA: BizFile portal
- Data.gov.sg: registered entities with Unique Entity Number
The three UEN formats and the role of the issuing agencies reflect Singapore's published UEN system documentation, consulted in August 2026. The entity type codes listed are the commonly encountered ones; the authoritative and complete list is maintained on uen.gov.sg and should be checked for any code not shown here.