SMS Registry

Under the Full SSIR Regime, all organisations wishing to send SMS messages to Singapore mobile numbers must register any alpha/numeric/alphanumeric Sender IDs that the organisations use. From 31 October 2022 to 30 January 2023, organisations can create an account and register their Sender IDs via the SSIR Portal. Registration of Sender IDs will be on a first-come-first-served basis following the Rules of Registration.

From 31 January 2023 onwards, when the Full SSIR Regime kicks in, all non-registered Sender IDs will be marked as “Likely-SCAM”.

All Organisations that send SMS with Sender IDs must first present a valid identification, i.e., the local unique entity number (“UEN”), as issued by relevant government agencies in Singapore. Organisations with the valid identification (i.e., the UEN) can then register with the SSIR, and protect the Sender IDs they wish to use when sending SMS to Singapore mobile users.
 
Foreign-based businesses can obtain a UEN by registering with the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (“ACRA”). A foreign business can either register as local subsidiary or register as a foreign branch office. Foreign-based businesses can then register for Sender IDs with SSIR via their local subsidiary or foreign branch office as long as the local subsidiary/ foreign branch office can present a valid UEN. Companies registered with ACRA will have to comply with the statutory and disclosure requirements of the Companies Act. 

A Letter of Authorisation (LOA) can be issued by the Singapore-registered subsidiary/foreign branch office to authorise other overseas branch offices, which need to send SMS with SSIR registered Sender IDs on the local subsidiary/foreign branch office’s behalf. This copy of the completed LOA needs to be submitted by the foreign-based business to the participating aggregator(s) engaged for the SMS delivery to Singapore mobile users. The LOA template for affiliates can be downloaded here.

Other non-business Organisations (e.g., charity organisation, societies, religious bodies) can also register with the relevant agencies that will issue UEN to these specific types of organisations. 

To register with SSIR, follow these key steps:

1. Account Setup:
   1. Create an account via the SSIR Portal with the required documents (e.g. Corppass verification) and select the Participating Aggregators (PA) your organisation works with).
   2. If you engage a third-party vendor/representative, please check with them the PA(s) name they are working with and select the PA(s) in the dropdown field.
   3. Once SGNIC accepts your account application, you will receive an email notification to make payment via the SSIR Portal within 30 calendar days from the date of the notification.
   4. After payment is completed, you may proceed to register your Sender ID(s) in the SSIR Portal.

    

2. Sender ID Application(s):
   1. Register your Sender ID(s) in the SSIR Portal on a first-come-first-served basis in accordance with the Rules of Registration. 
   2. If your Sender ID(s) are not unique to your organisation’s brand or product, additional supporting documents (e.g., website URL, screenshots, brochures, or marketing collateral) will be requested by SGNIC.
   3. If you are not directly working with a PA, ensure your vendor/representative completes the Letter of Authorisation (LOA) and submits the LOA to the PA(s) they engage.
   4. Once SGNIC accepts your Sender ID application(s), you will receive an email notification to make payment via the SSIR Portal within 30 calendar days from the date of notification.
   5. Once payment is completed, the approved Sender ID(s) will be whitelisted/and conveyed to Participating Aggregators on a weekly basis.

The entire process from account registration to the commencement of protection for your Sender ID(s) typically takes approximately 19 calendar days, provided all required supporting documents are submitted correctly and payments are made promptly.

Your account application and Sender ID registration(s) will be deemed unsuccessful if payment is not received within 30 calendar days from the date of email notice to make payment.

For more information, please refer to the SSIR Portal User Guide or contact us at smsregistry@sgnic.sg.

Yes. You may download the SSIR Portal User Guide.

Participating Aggregators are SMS Aggregators licensed by the Infocommunications Media Development Authority (IMDA) to undertake the delivery of SMSes with Sender IDs registered with SGNIC. They are listed here.

Only Participating Aggregators (PAs) can handle registered whitelist Sender IDs. A PA must be licensed by IMDA. More information on IMDA’s application procedures and license criteria can be found at Services-Based Operations (SBO) Licence - Infocomm Media Development Authority (imda.gov.sg). You can reach out to SGNIC at smsregistry@sgnic.sg if your Aggregator is not one of the PAs. SGNIC can work with you to onboard them. Alternatively, if your Aggregator is not keen to participate in the Registry, you may have to reroute your traffic through other PAs to ensure that the whitelist protection works correctly.

Please read the SSIR User Agreement and refer to the Annex: Fee and Fee Payment Schedule. 

Once your application (account setup and/or Sender ID registration) is accepted, you will receive an email notification to make payment via the SSIR Portal within 30 calendar days from the date of notification.

SGNIC accepts payment via these digital payment modes:

1. Visa / Mastercard
2. PayNow (Dynamic QR code)
   

If you require a proforma invoice for internal processing to make payment, you may generate it from the Proceed to Pay Summary page. You can enter your Billing Address and Purchase Order (PO) number (optional, if required) to be reflected on both the proforma invoice and tax invoice.

Upon successful payment, a tax invoice will be automatically generated. You can download the tax invoice from the Transaction History page in the SSIR Portal. You may refer to the SSIR Portal User Guide for more information.

Important:

Billing address and PO number cannot be changed once the tax invoice is generated.

The Sender ID payment deadline shown in the SSIR Portal is 30 calendar days from the date of Sender ID acceptance, not the date on the proforma invoice.

No. However, you can generate a proforma invoice (note: this is NOT a tax invoice) from the Proceed to Pay Summary page, enter your Billing Address and Purchase Order (PO) number (optional, if required).

Upon successful payment, a tax invoice will be automatically generated. You can download the tax invoice from the Transaction History page in the SSIR Portal.

Important:

For new account set-up or Sender ID fee:

The new account set-up and Sender ID fee payment deadline shown in the SSIR Portal is 30 calendar days from the date of acceptance, not the date on the proforma invoice.

For Sender ID renewal fee:

If the payment is not made by the last day of the current Sender ID validity period, the Sender ID will be automatically removed from the system. You need to re-register the Sender ID in the SSIR Portal on a first-come, first-served basis in accordance with the Rules of Registration.

Billing address and PO number cannot be changed once the tax invoice is generated.

No. The payment methods available in the SSIR portal are Visa, Mastercard and PayNow (Dynamic QR code).

Please coordinate with your team responsible for payments to pay via Visa, Mastercard and PayNow (Dynamic QR code) in the SSIR portal.

If payment is not received by the due date, your application will be deemed unsuccessful:

• For account registration, your application will be voided, and you need to submit a new account registration.
• For Sender ID registration, the Sender ID will be released i.e. available for another user to register. You need to submit a new Sender ID registration via the SSIR Portal.

Please ensure payment is made promptly by the due date to avoid restarting the application process.

If your transaction fails or you encounter an error, please try again. If the issue persists, please screenshot the error message and contact smsregistry@sgnic.sg for assistance.

Each Sender ID cannot exceed 11 characters (including spaces, underscores or hyphens), cannot contain Chinese or Cyrillic characters, and should not be generic in nature. Please refer to Rules of Registration for more details.

This is possible provided the following conditions are met:

1. Only 5-digit short codes starting with 7 can be registered;
2. The short code will need to be unique to the user organisation; and
3. The user organisation will need to submit supporting document(s) to the SSIR, showing that the short code was issued by a Mobile Network Operator in Singapore to the SMS aggregator that the user organisation is working with.

This is possible provided the following conditions are met:

1. Only numeric Sender IDs assigned by Mobile Network Operators in Singapore and sent by Participating Aggregators can be registered. SIM card mobile number cannot be registered as Sender ID; 
2. Only LVNs from the 8 and 9 series can be registered, where user organisation should register the 10-digit LVN (65 without "+" prefix) e.g. 658xxxxxxx or 659xxxxxxx.  The 8-digit LVN (without 65) e.g. 8xxxxxx or 9xxxxxxx will not be accepted for registration;
3. The LVN will need to be unique to the user organisation;
4. The user organisation will need to submit supporting document(s) to the SSIR, showing that the LVN was issued by a Mobile Network Operator in Singapore to the SMS aggregator that the user organisation is working with.

Any whitelisting protection by the Registry will be applied to Singapore mobile numbers only. Organisations can choose to deliver such SMS messages carrying registered Sender IDs to foreign mobile numbers. However, foreign recipients may still receive SMS which spoof your Sender ID, if the messages pass through non-participating aggregators.

You should engage your SMS aggregator to investigate the issue. You may wish to keep the Registry smsregistry@sgnic.sg in the loop when you check with your aggregator.

You are also advised to take note of the following steps when sending SMS to avoid the SMS being converted into the “Likely-SCAM” thread: 
 
1. Make sure whitelisting has been effected - While users may have submitted an application to register a Sender ID, they will be able to send SMS using the Sender ID only after the whitelisting is effected by your aggregators participating in the SSIR (see point 4 below). Doing so before the effective date will result in the SMS being converted to “Likely-SCAM”. For example, if a user sends an SMS with a Sender ID where the status of that ID is still pending, the Sender ID will be converted to "Likely-SCAM". Users can obtain information on whether their application is successful and when the whitelisting will be effective by from their SGNIC account (see screenshot below where the latest status shows “Live” and effective date under the “Effective By” column).  It takes some time for applications to be processed as your identity needs to be verified in order to maintain the security and integrity of the registry. 
 

2. Sender IDs are case sensitive - Users should check their Sender IDs and ensure the Sender ID matches that of its whitelisted Sender ID before sending the SMS. To illustrate, “PineApple” and “PineAPPLE” are considered two different IDs. Using a Sender ID with a different upper/lower case format from that of the whitelisted Sender ID will result in the SMS being blocked or converted to “Likely-SCAM”. If users prefer to send using different Sender ID format i.e. upper/lower case, please register them with the SSIR.
 
3. Make sure all Sender IDs used have been whitelisted – Some users may use different Sender IDs for different types of SMS communications with their clients. Please ensure the Sender IDs used are whitelisted with the SSIR. If users are relying on service providers to send SMS and the SMS is sent using the Sender ID of the service providers, users should also check if their service providers have registered the Sender ID with the SSIR.  
 
4. Use only aggregators that are participating in the SSIR – We are aware of instances where users attempted to send their SMS with a whitelisted Sender ID through a SMS aggregator that is not participating in the SSIR. Please note that only aggregators that are participating in the SSIR (“Participating Aggregators”) are allowed to handle whitelisted Sender IDs. Whitelisted Sender IDs sent through non-participating aggregators will be blocked. Please refer to https://sgnic.sg/smsregistry/list-of-participating-aggregators for the list of Participating Aggregators. 
 
5. Participating Aggregators may require additional information from users  – While users may have successfully whitelisted their Sender IDs, they should also ensure that they have completed the registration with their Participating Aggregators. We understand that some of the users failed to provide documents requested by the Participating Aggregators for their due diligence checks and hence their account registration with these Participating Aggregators was not completed. This resulted in the Participating Aggregators disallowing the user from sending SMS at all or converting the SMS sent by these organisations to “Likely-SCAM”. 
 
6. Send a test SMS first – It is good practice for users to test-sending an SMS to ensure that the SMS will be delivered properly, before sending the SMS to the rest of their users. 

An organisation may authorise a representative to send SMS with the organisation’s registered Sender ID on its behalf. For example, a marketing firm is appointed by an organisation to run a marketing campaign for the organisation. To authorise the representative to send such SMS with the registered Sender ID on the organisation’s behalf, a  Letter of Authorisation (LOA) provided by the organisation who registered that Sender ID is required. The representative will need to provide the LOA to the participating aggregator engaged for the sending of the SMS. 

You can download the LOA template for representative here.

Security of the SMS account(s) and Sender ID(s) (SIDs) held with your Participating Aggregator(s) (“PAs”)

1. With the introduction of the Full SMS Sender ID Registry (SSIR) Regime on 31 January 2023, organisations using alpha/alphanumeric/numeric Sender IDs (SIDs) in their SMS messages to Singapore mobile users must first register the SIDs with SGNIC. Participating Aggregators(s) (“PAs”) will check to ensure that SMS bearing registered SIDs are sent from accounts of their registered owners or their authorised representative. However, scammers have been known to exploit vulnerabilities, such as picking on SMS accounts that have not been properly secured by their owners and take over these accounts to send unauthorised SMS. Organisations may suffer reputational damage, financial losses as well as operations disruption to their business from the compromised accounts.

2. To reinforce the security of your account(s) with the PA(s), please consider the following measures with your PA(s):

• Updating account credentials and Application Programming Interface (API) keys regularly;
• Ensuring API key is kept and protected on a secure Key Management System (KMS), managed by a trusted person from your organisation;
• Removing any decommissioned or unused API keys;
• Ensuring 2 Factor Authentication (2FA) for admin account access is in place;
• Checking if your PAs support IP whitelisting, which may help to prevent unauthorized account access; and
• Exploring with your PAs to set a cap on the number of SMS or issue an alert if SMSes sent exceeded a certain volume per day.

3. It is strongly encouraged that you take proactive actions to enhance the security of your account(s) and SID(s) to safeguard yourself and your customers.

4. If you encounter any issues with your SMS delivery, please approach your PAs to ascertain the cause. You may also contact us at smsregistry@sgnic.sg if you require further assistance.

No, you will not be able to edit a Sender ID registration once the application has been submitted in the SSIR Portal. If the application has not yet been accepted, please delete the incorrect Sender ID in the SSIR Portal and re-submit the correct Sender ID you wish to register. If the application has already been accepted, please contact smsregistry@sgnic.sg for assistance.

No, you will not be able to edit a Sender ID registration once payment has been made. Please ensure you have submitted the correct Sender ID, and checked all information is accurate, including checking with your Participating Aggregator(s), before completing payment in the SSIR Portal.

As stated in the SSIR User Agreement, Clause 4 and the Annex: Fee and Fee Payment Schedule, payments are non-refundable, including for account cancellation and early removal of registered Sender ID(s).

You need to delete the incorrect Sender ID and re-submit a new Sender ID registration. A new payment will be required for the newly registered Sender ID, i.e. once your new Sender ID application is accepted, you will receive an email notification to make payment within 30 calendar days from the date of notification.

No. You only make payment after your Sender ID registration is accepted by SGNIC. If your Sender ID is not accepted by SGNIC, you will not be prompted to make payment.

No. As stated in the SSIR User Agreement, Clause 4 and the Annex: Fee and Fee Payment Schedule, payments are non-refundable, including for account cancellation and early removal of registered Sender ID(s).

You can check the validity period of your registered Sender IDs by logging into the SSIR portal, navigate to the Sender ID tab and select the Sent tab, to view your registered Sender IDs and their corresponding expiry dates.

Alternatively, you may view your Sender ID due for renewal under Payment page at Payment for Renewal Sender ID.

An automated reminder will be sent to your registered Admin User(s) email address 2 months and 1 month respectively before the end of the Sender ID validity period. 

Annual Sender ID renewal fees can be paid anytime before the last day of the current Sender ID validity period.

If you require a proforma invoice for internal processing to make payment, you may generate it from the Proceed to Pay Summary page. You can enter your Billing Address and Purchase Order (PO) number (optional, if required) to be reflected on both the proforma invoice and tax invoice.

Upon successful payment, a tax invoice will be automatically generated. You can download the tax invoice from the Transaction History page in the SSIR Portal. You may refer to the SSIR Portal User Guide for more information.

Important:

Billing address and PO number cannot be changed once the tax invoice is generated.

If payment is not made by the last day of the current Sender ID validity period, the Sender ID will be automatically removed from the system. You will need to re-register the same Sender ID in the SSIR Portal on a first-come, first-served basis in accordance with the Rules of Registration.

SSIR Portal does not store credit card details. Payments will not be automatically deducted. You need to make the payment via the SSIR portal for subsequent Sender ID renewal.

Yes. The SSIR Portal allows you to make payment for multiple Sender ID registrations and renewals in a single transaction.

Under your account’s Payment section, select the Sender ID(s) listed at "Payment for New Sender ID" and “Payment for Renewal Sender ID” to proceed to make payment. 

Users must pay for upcoming Sender ID renewal fees before the last day of Sender ID validity period. You may also pay in advance for the next following year Sender ID renewal. For example, on 10 Dec 2025, you can make two payments — one for the upcoming year renewal (1 May 2026 – 30 Apr 2027) and another for the following year renewal (1 May 2027 – 30 Apr 2028).