About this form
Form A1 is the customer particulars form for an individual client. It is the starting point of customer due diligence in almost every transaction where the client is a natural person, and it is completed for the client themselves — not for anyone they may be acting on behalf of.
When you need it
- Your client is an individual acting for themselves.
- Your client is the executor of an estate — the executor completes A1 as the individual, and the estate’s beneficiaries are recorded separately on Form A4.
- Any transaction that is not a wholly residential HDB rental, which is exempt from customer due diligence entirely.
How to complete it
- Collect the client’s particulars and verify their identity against an original identification document.
- Where the client is acting for someone else, complete A1 for the client and add Form A3 or A4 for the person or entity behind them.
- Complete a Form B for the client, and for every other person screened in the transaction.
- Submit the completed form and supporting evidence to the agency, then delete any identification images from your personal device.
Common mistakes
- Completing A1 for the person the client is acting for, rather than for the client. A1 is always the client in front of you.
- Treating the form as the whole of due diligence. Particulars without screening and a recorded risk conclusion is an incomplete file.
- Collecting the particulars after the Option to Purchase has been issued.
- Leaving identification photographs on a personal phone after submission.
Legal basis
Published by CEA as an annex to the Guide on the Estate Agents (Prevention of Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism) Regulations 2021. Read the issuer’s guidance.
Questions
- Is Form A1 needed for an HDB rental?
- A tenancy of an HDB flat wholly for residential use is exempt from customer due diligence, so no A1 is required. A tenancy covering the commercial space of an HDB shophouse is not exempt. The duty to file a Suspicious Transaction Report applies regardless.
- When must it be completed?
- All due diligence must be complete BEFORE the client enters into any agreement — before an Option to Purchase is issued or exercised, and before a Tenancy Agreement is signed.
- Which version should I use?
- Use the 30 June 2025 versions. Forms from the superseded guide must no longer be used.