Employment agency licence (Singapore).

In Singapore, any business that places or helps to place workers with employers — recruitment, executive search, temporary staffing — must hold an employment agency (EA) licence issued by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) under the Employment Agencies Act. Operating without a licence is an offence. Rules evolve; the reference date of this entry is August 2026.

Who needs a licence

The regime is activity-based: what counts is whether the business performs employment-agency work in or into Singapore, not what it calls itself. Placing candidates into Singapore-based roles from abroad can also fall in scope. Adjacent models are assessed on their substance — a marketplace or contract-management service may or may not qualify as an EA depending on how matching actually happens.

Core obligations

Licensed agencies must, among other things:

• register their recruitment staff as EA personnel, who must meet certification requirements;
• appoint key appointment holders who satisfy MOM's fit-and-proper and qualification criteria;
• observe caps and rules on fees charged to jobseekers;
• keep records, display licence details, and comply with licence conditions and demerit-point rules;
• lodge the required security deposit where applicable.

MOM operates a public directory of licensed agencies, enabling employers and jobseekers to verify a counterparty before doing business — a check considered basic due diligence in the Singapore market.

Enforcement

MOM enforces actively: unlicensed activity, illegal fee-charging and false declarations can lead to fines, imprisonment, licence revocation and demerit points. The framework also interacts with Singapore's work-pass system: agencies involved in placing foreign professionals must follow work-pass rules and advertising requirements.

Relevance to Hero

Hero's Singapore entity, Hero Singapore Pte. Ltd. (office under construction), is the vehicle for serving the Southeast Asian market in line with this framework: matching activity in or into Singapore is conducted under the applicable EA licensing rules, with registered personnel and verifiable status. The approach mirrors Hero's course elsewhere — local entity, local compliance, one worldwide process — and the pay-off The global company next door.: globally consistent, locally correct. For the European and Dutch counterparts of this compliance picture, see the compliance entries for the Netherlands and France.