Deputy Prime Minister and Commerce Minister Suphajee Suthumpun has clarified that a widely cited 75% drop in nominee businesses refers only to newly registered entities in the nominee-risk category, not to all nominee arrangements in Thailand.
Suphajee raised the issue on Facebook as part of the ministry’s “Q&A with the Ministry of Commerce” series, responding to a question that followed the ministry’s 90-day performance briefing.
She said the ministry recorded 141 newly registered high-risk entities between August 1 and 20, compared with 561 during the same period last year, a decline of 420 entities, or close to 75%.
Suphajee said the ministry was acting on two fronts. Before registration, it had tightened checks on shareholders and those controlling businesses, cross-referencing data on about 13 million State Welfare Card holders and approximately 98,000 suspected mule accounts against one million juristic-person records.
The ministry is also reviewing already-registered companies in partnership with 23 agencies. Information on more than 50,000 cases classified as at risk has been forwarded for further checks, alongside on-site inspections in 46 areas across 13 provinces.
Four orders and two notifications have also been issued to strengthen measures against nominee arrangements and corporate mule accounts.
Separately, the Department of Business Development has extended its checks beyond the initial registration stage, meaning companies that later change their shareholders, directors or authorised signatories now also face scrutiny.
Businesses with foreign investors or foreign authorised signatories must submit a written explanation of the investment along with three months of bank statements to verify the source of funds and the investor’s financial capacity.
The department is also linking its database with the Land Department and other agencies to strengthen checks on suspected nominee land ownership, and is verifying shareholder identities against the civil registration database.
The government says Thailand has more than one million active legal entities, including 119,116 companies with foreign shareholdings of up to 49.99%. Officials stressed the figure is used only for risk assessment and does not imply any wrongdoing, with investigations conducted on a case-by-case basis.
Suphajee said the ministry’s goal was to prevent the system from being misused while reviewing existing registrations, while ensuring that people conducting business honestly could continue to operate easily and compete fairly.
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The story Thailand nominee crackdown cuts new filings by 75% as seen on Thaiger News.
