MALAYSIA Trends and Developments Contributed by: Dato’ Tan Yee Boon, Stephanie Chan Pik Jia and Joaana Keng Li Xin, David Lai & Tan
main objective of those standards is to combat money laundering, terrorist financing and other illegal activities, such as corruption and tax eva - sion. Following the implementation of the Amendment Act, companies (including the board of direc - tors, company secretaries, agents, members of the company and any person who received any notice under Section 60C of the Companies Act 2016) are now required to proactively iden - tify and verify their beneficial owners (pursuant to Section 60A of the Companies Act 2016, a beneficial owner is defined as an individual or natural person who ultimately owns or controls a company, including the person who exercis - es ultimate effective control over a company). Each company shall also maintain a register of beneficial owners at their registered office and report changes to the CCM within a stipulated timeframe.
This beneficial ownership reporting framework aims to include persons with no shares in the company but who ultimately have control over the company. Together with the guidelines issued by the CCM, it is applicable to all com - panies (including foreign companies) that are incorporated and registered under the Compa - nies Act 2016.
558 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook