Who Can Certify a True Copy in Malaysia? Company Secretary vs Commissioner for Oaths vs Notary Public vs SSM — the Wording Banks Accept, the RM10 SSM Fee, and Why Documents for China Still Need Notarisation and Wisma Putra Legalisation (2026)

"Please provide a certified true copy." Banks, the Immigration ESD system, CIDB, tender boards, foreign embassies and Chinese partners all ask for it, and almost none of them say who should do the certifying. In Malaysia there are four different people or bodies who can put a "certified true copy" stamp on a document, and they are not interchangeable. This guide explains who can certify what, the wording a recipient expects, what each route costs, and the point at which a certified copy stops being enough and you need notarisation and legalisation instead.

Quick answer (as at October 2026): A certified true copy (CTC) is a photocopy that someone with authority has compared against the original and signed as a true and complete copy. For company documents and the IC or passport of a company's own directors and shareholders, Malaysian banks and agencies usually accept a CTC by the company secretary, who holds a statutory office under ss.235–236 of the Companies Act 2016 and, since 15 March 2019, must hold an SSM practising certificate (s.241). SSM itself certifies documents lodged with the Registrar for RM10 per document (Table of Fees, item 41). For a personal document with no link to the company, use a Commissioner for Oaths or a lawyer. For use in China or another foreign country, a CTC is usually not enough: the document needs a notary public, then Wisma Putra authentication, then the embassy. Malaysia is not a party to the Apostille Convention.

What a certified true copy actually proves

A certified true copy proves one narrow thing: that this copy matches an original that the certifier saw or holds in records. It does not prove that the original is genuine, that the information in it is current, or that the person in the photo is standing in front of the bank officer. Recipients ask for a CTC because a plain photocopy proves nothing at all. They need someone accountable to say "I compared this against the original."

That is why who certifies matters more than the stamp. A bank accepts a company secretary's certification of a director's passport because the secretary keeps the register of directors and has a regulatory licence to lose. A Commissioner for Oaths is a court-appointed officer. A notary public is a senior advocate and solicitor appointed by the Attorney General, recognised overseas. SSM is the registry itself. Each of them puts their own accountability behind a different kind of document.

The four certifiers compared

Many recipients also accept certification by an advocate and solicitor, an accountant (Chartered Accountant, MIA member), or a bank officer who sees the original at the counter. These are recipient rules, not statute. Always check the recipient's checklist before you certify, because certifying through the wrong person means doing it twice.

When the company secretary is the right certifier

For a Malaysian Sdn Bhd, the company secretary is the natural certifier of anything that sits in the company's own statutory records. The secretary must be appointed within 30 days of incorporation (s.236), keeps the registers and minute books, and lodges the company's notices with SSM. When a secretary certifies a resolution, they are certifying a document they have custody of. That is a stronger statement than a third party saying "this matches a paper someone showed me."

The documents most often requested, and the ONEKEY BIZ service page that handles each, are:

• IC and passport of directors and shareholders. Banks doing KYC, the ESD system for Employment Pass applications, and licensing bodies all ask for these. See certified true copy of IC and passport by the company secretary.
• SSM forms and resolutions. Section 14 registration, notice of directors (s.58), register of members (s.51), and the board resolution authorising a bank account or facility. See CTC of SSM forms and resolutions.
• The constitution. Banks check signing authority; regulated licences check for required clauses. See CTC of the company constitution.
• Audited financial statements. CIDB grade applications, bank facilities and tenders. See CTC of audited financial statements.

A company secretary should not certify a document that has nothing to do with the company, such as a director's personal degree certificate or a spouse's marriage certificate for a Dependant Pass. That is a Commissioner for Oaths or lawyer job. A careful secretary will decline. If a secretary certifies anything you hand over, the certification is worth less to everyone, including you.

What a proper CTC looks like

No Malaysian statute prescribes the CTC wording, so recipients set their own standards. In practice the following is accepted almost everywhere, and missing items are the most common reason a bank sends documents back.

SSM certified copies: when the registry is the better source

If a document has been lodged with SSM, the registry can certify its own copy. The SSM Table of Fees lists RM10 for certification of any document relating to a company lodged with the Registrar (item 41), RM10 for a copy or extract of a document, notification or certificate (item 38), and RM10 for an electronic company profile (item 42). These are useful when the recipient wants the government's version, not the company's. Examples include a court, a counterparty doing due diligence, or a foreign authority that will only accept public documents.

SSM certification has a limit, though. It can only certify what is in the registry. Board resolutions that were never lodged, internal registers, and audited accounts of a company that files under an exemption may not be there. Those come from the company secretary.

For documents that will go overseas, an SSM-issued document has one more advantage. As a government document, it can usually go to Wisma Putra for authentication without first being notarised. Private documents, including a secretary's CTC, cannot.

Sending documents to China or overseas: when a CTC is not enough

This is where most Chinese investors lose time. China joined the Apostille Convention with effect from 7 November 2023, but the HCCH status table does not list Malaysia as a contracting party. A Malaysian document going to mainland China therefore still needs the full consular legalisation chain. A company secretary's CTC alone will not be accepted by a Chinese bank, court or market regulator.

In our experience, plan for the whole chain to take about two to three weeks, including the notary appointment and Wisma Putra. If the document is in Malay or English and the Chinese recipient needs Chinese, check whether the translation must also be notarised and included in the legalised bundle. Different Chinese authorities treat this differently.

Common requests and the right route

For banks, the CTC is one part of a larger due diligence file. Our guide to bank customer due diligence and beneficial ownership explains the rest of what a Malaysian bank checks. For Employment Pass files, see the Employment Pass and PVP guide.

Five ways CTCs get rejected

1. The wrong certifier. A company secretary certified a personal document, or a friend who is "a director somewhere" certified a passport. Recipients check capacity.
2. Out of date. A board resolution certified in March, submitted in September. Banks often set a freshness window, commonly three to six months; ask the bank which it uses.
3. The copy does not match the record. The passport was renewed but the SSM record still shows the old number, or the constitution was amended after the version being certified. Update the record first.
4. Missing pages or initials. One unsigned page in a 30-page constitution is enough to have the whole set returned.
5. Overseas use without legalisation. A CTC sent to a Chinese counterparty who needed a notarised and legalised document. The CTC itself was fine; it was simply the wrong product.

Practical checklist before you certify

• Get the recipient's written checklist, including any exact wording, page-stamping rules and the maximum age of the CTC.
• Confirm the company's SSM records are current: directors, shareholders, address and constitution.
• Decide the certifier per document: company secretary for company records and directors' or shareholders' ID; SSM for lodged public documents; Commissioner for Oaths for personal documents; notary for overseas use.
• Make clean, full-page copies. Copy both sides of an IC.
• Order enough sets. Banks, ESD and licensing bodies each keep their own.
• For overseas use, start the notary, Wisma Putra and embassy chain early and budget two to three weeks.

This article is general information only, not legal, tax or immigration advice. Policies, thresholds and official fees are set by the relevant Malaysian authorities and may change. Talk to our consultants about your specific situation.