Company Name Search, Reservation and Rejection at SSM

The most common reason a name gets rejected is not that someone already has it. It is that SSM considers it identical to something you would never think of as a match.

What makes a name unavailable

Section 26(1) of the Companies Act 2016 gives four grounds. A name is available if it is not:

• undesirable or unacceptable;
• identical to an existing company, corporation or business;
• identical to a name currently reserved under the Act; or
• a kind of name the Minister has directed the Registrar not to accept.

Section 26(2) hands the Registrar the power to decide which of those applies. There is no objective test you can run yourself.

Identical is broader than it sounds

SSM’s Guidelines on Company Names set out what is disregarded when comparing two names — meaning if that is your only point of difference, the names are identical:

• “The” at the start; “Sendirian”, “Sdn”, “Berhad”, “Bhd”, “PLT”;
• trailing “Company”, “Co”, “Syarikat”, “Corporation”, “Corp”, “Perbadanan”, “Incorporated”, “Inc”, “Holding”, “Group”, “Kumpulan”, “Malaysia”, “(M)”, “Msia”, “Consortium”, “Consolidated”;
• plurals;
• root words that carry the same meaning — Consultancy / Consultants / Consults, Technology / Technologies / Tech, Trade / Trading / Trader;
• letter case, spacing and punctuation;
• ”&” treated as “and” or “dan”.

SSM’s own worked example: Zip Legacy Sdn. Bhd. already exists, so Zip Legacy Malaysia Sdn. Bhd. cannot be considered even with a letter of consent — the geographic tag does not distinguish it. But Zip Legacy Consolidated Sdn. Bhd. can be considered, with consent, because “Consolidated” does.

The words the Minister has blocked

Paragraph 12 of the guidelines lists the direction. Names suggesting a connection with royalty (“Royal”, “King”, “Queen”, “Prince”, “Crown”, “Imperial”), with federal or state government (“Federal”, “State”, “National”), with ASEAN, the UN or another international body, or with a political party, society, trade union or co-operative.

Then a flat word list: Bank, Banker, Banking, Bumiputra, Bureau, Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Chartered, College, Consumer, Council, Credit, Exchange, Executor, Fair Price, Finance, Foundation, Fund, Guarantee, Institute, Insurance, Investment, Leasing, Made in Malaysia, Prime, Registry, Treasury, Trust, Unit Trust, University.

Separately, referral authorities control their own vocabulary and require a written permission letter attached before the name search: LAM for “Architect” and “Arkitek”, BEM for “Engineer” and “Jurutera”, LPPEH for “Surveyor”, “Penilai” and “Estate Agent”, BNM for “Money Changer”, “Takaful”, “Forex”, “Remittance” and much else, CAAM for “Air”, “Aviation” and “Aerospace”, JAKIM for “Halal”, “Islam”, “Wasiat” and “Crypto”.

If you have justification, s.27(3) lets you appeal to the Minister — RM300, and the Minister’s decision is final.

Reservation, and the 180-day ceiling

You can reserve first or incorporate directly. Direct incorporation runs the name check inside the RM1,000 application. A standalone reservation is RM50 for every thirty days or part thereof, with a maximum of 180 days — and a reserved name confers no right to be registered under it (s.27(6)).

The correction most guides need

Practitioner pages routinely describe a “s.26 direction to change your name”. Section 26 does no such thing. The power to direct an existing company to change a registered name is s.29(1), it is exercised by written notice, and the period is sixty days, not thirty. If the company does not comply, s.29(2) lets the Registrar change the name to the company’s registration number.

One more timing point people miss: a name freed by a strike-off is only reusable seven years after dissolution under s.555(1), while a name freed by court order or voluntary winding up is reusable after two years under s.535(1).

Common mistakes

• Reserving a name you have already printed. The reservation gives no entitlement to registration (s.27(6)), and the Registrar can still refuse at incorporation.
• Letting the 180 days run out. There is no extension beyond it — you start again.
• Adding “Malaysia” or “Group” to dodge a clash. Both are disregarded words.
• Assuming a controlled word is fine because a competitor has one. Existing holders obtained consent or were registered under an earlier regime.
• Ignoring a s.29 notice. Sixty days is generous, and the consequence of silence is trading under your registration number.

What’s next

Run the identical-name test against SSM’s disregard list before you fall in love with a name, and check the referral-authority list for any word in your sector. If your name carries a controlled word, get the permission letter first — attaching it to the search is far cheaper than a RM300 appeal to the Minister.