DBD tightens nominee crackdown, orders financial-trail checks in 16 risk provinces
Thailand’s Department of Business Development will require Thai shareholders and company directors in high-risk firms to submit bank statements from August 1, as it intensifies checks on suspected nominee structures.
The Department of Business Development (DBD) is stepping up inspections of companies suspected of using Thai nominees, focusing on 16 risk provinces where foreign shareholding is high.
From August 1, 2026, the department will introduce new measures requiring Thai shareholders and company directors to submit bank statements so authorities can examine financial trails and verify whether real investment has taken place.
Poonpong Naiyanapakorn, director-general of the Department of Business Development under the Commerce Ministry, said an analysis of business registration data, shareholder records, financial statements and information from accounting offices found nearly 120,000 companies requiring further inspection.
These are companies in which foreign nationals hold between 0.01% and 49.99% of shares.
The department is focusing particularly on companies where foreign ownership is close to the legal ceiling, at 40% to 49.99%, in 16 target provinces.
The provinces are Chonburi, Surat Thani, Phuket, Krabi, Phang Nga, Prachuap Khiri Khan, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Mae Hong Son, Rayong, Bangkok, Samut Prakan, Samut Sakhon, Nakhon Pathom, Nonthaburi and Pathum Thani.
In the first 10 provinces, the department found 18,720 very high-risk companies and 14,118 high-risk companies.
In the remaining six provinces in Bangkok and the surrounding metropolitan area, it found 7,579 very high-risk companies and 1,752 high-risk companies.
Tactics used to evade the law
Poonpong said that over the past six months, more than 18,246 new companies had been established. Of these, 3,270 were considered at risk of being structured to support nominee shareholding.
Foreign nationals appearing in the risk groups include several nationalities, such as Chinese, British, Indian, French, Singaporean, Russian, Japanese and South Korean nationals.
The DBD has also detected increasingly sophisticated attempts to evade the law.
Some companies are initially registered as 100% Thai-owned to avoid inspection under previous orders focused on foreign companies. Their directors or shareholders are then gradually changed to foreign nationals later.
New measures require bank statements from August 1
To address the problem, the DBD will issue a new order taking effect on August 1, 2026.
The key measures are:
1. Bank statements required
The department will request bank statements from Thai nationals jointly investing with foreigners, as well as from company directors responsible for receiving investment funds.
2. Consistency checks
Officials will examine whether the declared investment matches actual financial transfers in the correct proportion and within the correct period. If the information is inconsistent, the registrar will immediately reject the registration.
3. Closer monitoring of ownership changes
The order will also cover companies that were previously 100% Thai-owned but later changed into foreign-linked companies.
Professional advisers warned
Poonpong also warned professional advisers, including more than 80,000 accountants and over 90,000 lawyers or legal consultants, to stop supporting or advising on nominee registration arrangements.
He said legal documents are in Thai, meaning foreign nationals cannot complete the process themselves without assistance from Thai nationals.
Law-enforcement agencies, including the Revenue Department, Department of Lands, Royal Thai Police and Department of Special Investigation, are now integrating data to pursue legal action seriously.
