Labuan Money Broking License.

General information

There is no restriction for a Labuan money-broker to offer or provide trading of Contracts for Difference (CFD), which include futures, shares, indices and other commodities, provided the products and services fall within the definition of Labuan money-broking business under Section 86 of the Labuan Financial Services and Securities Act 2010.

Company structure

• Only one shareholder (can also be a legal person; no nationality or residency restrictions)
• At least two directors (natural persons only; no nationality or residency restrictions)

Confidentiality

• Beneficial owners’ details – not part of public record
• Shareholders’ details – not part of public record
• Directors’ details – partly available to the public

Taxation

3% of audited profits or a fixed price of MYR 20,000 per year (the company may choose one or the other).

Other benefits

• No restriction on the form or place of meetings for shareholders and directors
• A variety of banks in Malaysia can be opened for the company

Accounting requirements

A Labuan offshore company must have an audit performed by an approved auditor. An annual return must be filed 30 days prior to the company’s anniversary date of incorporation. A set of accounting records must be kept in Labuan.

Local presence

• Secretary – resident secretary, provided by a local trust company
• Registered Agent – required, local trust company
• Local office – required, together with a local phone line
• Local employees – required

Company name

• Language: any; letters from the Roman alphabet
• Must end with a suffix such as Limited, Incorporated, Corporation, Société Anonyme or Sociedad Anónima (or their abbreviations). If the Malaysian word “Berhad” is used it must be preceded by “(L)” to denote incorporation in Labuan.
• Names requiring consent or a licence: bank, building society, insurance, assurance, reinsurance, fund management, investment fund, trust, trustees, Chamber of Commerce, university, municipal, or their foreign-language equivalents.

Steps to obtain licence

1. 1
   Gathering and preparing the documents for initial verification
2. 2
   Once verification is done and initial paperwork is prepared, the originals must be couriered
3. 3
   Other relevant documents are provided to the LFSA based on its requests
4. 4
   The application is processed with the LFSA for the licence
5. 5
   Conditional approval is granted by the LFSA, allowing time (usually 3 months) to fulfil the capital requirement (RM 500,000), set up an office, obtain a phone number, hire a local employee and comply with other requests
6. 6
   Before receipt of the licence from the LFSA, the annual fee of RM 5,000 is paid (repeated yearly as a government renewal fee)