1.

Joe and Abu are involved in the promotion of a company and they seek your advice
relating to the restrictions upon the choice of corporate name with which a
promoter must comply.
The restrictions upon the choice of corporate name which a promoter must comply is that
if they wish to use any word of which usage is regulated by legislation, they must first obtain
the necessary written approval from the relevant regulatory body. They must attach the
approval letter to the application form to the Registrar of Companies (“ROC”) to reserve the
name. Some of the legislations and restricted words are “bank”, “money broker”, “deposit-
taking”, “finance”, “foreign exchange broker”, under Banking And Financial Institutions
Act 1989, “insurance”, “assurance”, “underwriter” are restricted words under Insurance Act
1996, “clinic”, “treatment”, “hair clinic”, and “hair loss” are the restricted words under
Medicine (Advertisement and Sale) Act 1956.
For instance, if they wish to include the word “bank” in the name of the company, they
must first obtain the prior approval of the Ministry Of Finance before applying to the ROC to
reserve the name.
Furthermore, there are also some words which suggest association with activities regulated
by a government agency or professional body and thus, their usage is restricted. For example,
words such as “college”, “institute”, “university”, “school” need approval from the Ministry
Of Education Malaysia, other words such as “ wakaf”, “Baitulmal”, “Halal”, “ wasiat”,
“faraid” need approval from the Jabatan Kemajuan Agama Islam Malaysia, while words
such as “amanah” and “trust” for formation of trust company need approval from the
Corporate Application Unit, ROC.
If the ROC is satisfied that the name chosen does not contravene Section 22 of the
Company Act 1965, (1) to (10) then the name will be reserved for 3 months. The applicant
has to incorporate the company within this time frame. If the applicant fails to do so, he has to
re-apply the reserve name.