Thailand introduced tougher checks on nominee business arrangements yesterday, August 1, extending scrutiny beyond the initial company registration process.
The new measures were introduced by the Department of Business Development (DBD) under the Ministry of Commerce.
Previously, checks focused only on the company registration stage. Under the new measures, businesses that later change their shareholders, directors or authorised signatories will also face additional checks.
Companies involving foreign investors or foreign authorised signatories must now submit a written explanation of the investment, along with three months of bank statements from the Thai investor providing the investment funds and the person or legal entity receiving the payment.
Officials said the documents will help verify the source of the funds and whether the Thai investor has the financial capacity to make the investment.
According to the DBD, the expanded checks are intended to prevent companies from passing initial registration before later restructuring their ownership or management to bypass existing screening measures.
The department is also linking its database with the Land Department and other government agencies to strengthen checks on suspected nominee arrangements, including companies allegedly used to hold land on behalf of foreign interests unlawfully. Shareholder identities will also be verified against Thailand’s civil registration database.
From August 1, copies of shareholder lists issued by the DBD will also carry a notice stating that the documents are records held by the registrar and do not confirm a person’s current shareholder status. Current ownership must instead be verified through the company’s shareholder register, which businesses are required by law to maintain.
The Thai government said Thailand has more than one million active legal entities, including 119,116 companies with foreign shareholdings of up to 49.99%.
They stressed the figure is used only for risk assessment and does not imply the companies have violated the law. Any investigation will be conducted on a case-by-case basis based on the available evidence.
In a separate development, Thailand’s crime figures linked to cybercrime, online scam networks and foreign nominee businesses have fallen by nearly 60% over three months, Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul announced.
The story Thailand expands nominee checks to post-registration changes as seen on Thaiger News.
