The short version
Must a Malaysian insurance broker publish its accounts on its website? Either channel satisfies it. Paragraph 16.1 gives you two ways to meet the duty: make the latest audited financial statements available for public inspection, at no cost, either at every branch in Malaysia, or on your website in a publicly accessible electronic form. A broker with a copy at every branch counter has met the rule in full. So the news here is quieter than an emergency, and worth noticing: the regulator has put your website alongside your branch as a legitimate channel for statutory disclosure, and one of those two channels is the one your clients actually use.
| Paragraph 16.1 | Limb (a)Every branch in Malaysia | Limb (b)Your own website |
|---|---|---|
| Satisfies the rule | Yes, in full. | Yes, in full. |
| What it takes | A current audited set free to inspect at every branch, on any day someone walks in. | One stable public address, replaced after each audit closes. |
| Who reads it | Someone who drives to your office and asks the front desk. | Every corporate buyer who looks you up before deciding you are worth a meeting. |
| In a tender | Produced when procurement asks for it. | Already published when procurement asks for it. |
| Found on eight brokers’ sites, 24 Jul 2026 | Outside what a check of websites can see. | Zero of the eight. |
What the rule actually says
Bank Negara Malaysia issued the Policy Document on Prudent and Professional Conduct of Insurance and Takaful Brokers on 29 August 2025. It came into effect on 1 January 2026, with one exception: paragraph 11.2, requiring at least one independent director on the board, takes effect on 1 January 2027.
It applies to approved brokers, meaning an approved insurance broker under the Financial Services Act 2013 and an approved takaful broker under the Islamic Financial Services Act 2013. If your firm is on Bank Negara's register of approved insurance and takaful brokers, it applies to you. Brokers licensed instead under the Labuan regime sit under a separate framework and are outside this document.
The document is broad. It covers minimum capital funds, professional indemnity cover, the appointment and responsibilities of the board and senior management, auditors, business conduct, the professionalism of broking staff, and notifications to the Bank. Most of it is prudential and internal. One paragraph is not.
Paragraph 16.1 · Publication of financial statements
"For purposes of section 66 of the FSA and section 75 of the IFSA, an approved broker's latest audited financial statements shall be made available for access and inspection by members of the public, at no cost whatsoever: (a) at every branch of the approved broker in Malaysia; or (b) on the approved broker's website in an electronic form that is publicly accessible."Policy Document on Prudent and Professional Conduct of Insurance and Takaful Brokers, paragraph 16.1. Read from the policy document itself, re-checked 18 September 2026.
Two details in that paragraph are easy to skim past. The first is "or". It is a genuine either/or, so the branch counter satisfies the rule on its own, and anyone reading the paragraph as a website mandate has misread it. The second is the opening clause: the paragraph is expressed to be for the purposes of section 66 of the FSA and section 75 of the IFSA. The obligation is anchored in statute, which gives it more weight than a policy preference.
What the paragraph actually asks for
Read closely, the paragraph is narrower than the reaction it tends to produce, and more specific than it first appears.
What we found when we looked
Eight broker websites, and none of them used the second option
8
Bank Negara-approved brokers whose websites we checked on 24 July 2026, homepage plus every page linked from it.
0
publishing audited financial statements, annual reports or any equivalent on the website limb.
2
further firms held out of the count: one blocked automated access, one was unreachable that day.
On 24 July 2026 we checked the websites of eight Bank Negara-approved Malaysian insurance brokers to see whether any had taken the website route. We looked at each firm's homepage and every page linked from it, searching for audited financial statements, annual reports or any equivalent disclosure. We found none. The single document that came closest was an anti-bribery and corruption policy statement, which is a different thing entirely.
To be clear about what that measures: it is a reading of eight websites, and compliance is a separate question those firms may already answer at the branch counter, which is exactly what the rule permits. What it does suggest is that six months after the rule commenced, the website limb is sitting almost entirely unused across the sector.
Method and limits, so you can judge the finding: eight firms, homepage plus all homepage-linked pages, automated retrieval on 24 July 2026. The method reaches only pages the homepage links to, so a statement on an unlinked deep page would have been missed. Two further firms were excluded rather than counted, because one blocked automated access and one failed to resolve at the time of checking. Every firm stays anonymous. The check stands as at that date, and websites change.
Why which channel you pick matters
Both options are compliant. They are not equally useful, and the difference is about who is actually looking.
If you take the website route, do it properly
Publishing a PDF badly creates new problems. This is the practical side, and it is the part a studio that builds websites for insurance brokers actually handles.
Three questions for your own site
Worth putting to whoever looks after your website, before someone outside the firm asks first.
If a question here has no clear answer, that is worth settling internally rather than discovering during a tender. The rule is undemanding. Being visibly organised about it is the part that earns anything.
Questions brokers are asking
Must a Malaysian insurance broker publish its financial statements on its website?
Either channel satisfies it. Paragraph 16.1 of Bank Negara Malaysia's Policy Document on Prudent and Professional Conduct of Insurance and Takaful Brokers requires an approved broker's latest audited financial statements to be available for public access and inspection at no cost, either at every branch of the broker in Malaysia, or on the broker's website in an electronic form that is publicly accessible. It is an either/or, so a broker that keeps copies available at every branch has met the rule in full, with the website left as a business decision.
When did the new BNM insurance broker rules take effect?
The Policy Document on Prudent and Professional Conduct of Insurance and Takaful Brokers was issued on 29 August 2025 and came into effect on 1 January 2026. One provision, paragraph 11.2 requiring at least one independent director on the board, takes effect later, on 1 January 2027.
Which firms does the BNM broker policy document apply to?
It applies to approved brokers, meaning an approved insurance broker under the Financial Services Act 2013 and an approved takaful broker under the Islamic Financial Services Act 2013. Bank Negara Malaysia publishes the current register of approved insurance and takaful brokers on its website. Brokers licensed instead under the Labuan regime are governed by a separate framework.
Is the financial statement disclosure duty statutory or just policy?
Paragraph 16.1 is expressed to be for the purposes of section 66 of the Financial Services Act 2013 and section 75 of the Islamic Financial Services Act 2013, so the disclosure obligation is anchored in statute rather than resting on policy preference alone.
What does "publicly accessible" mean for a broker's website?
The rule specifies an electronic form that is publicly accessible, at no cost. Read plainly, that points away from anything sitting behind a login, a contact form, an email request or a paywall. A document a member of the public can find and open without asking anyone's permission is the safer reading.
Sources
Everything above traces to one of these. Read the policy document yourself if any of it matters to a decision.
- Bank Negara Malaysia, Policy Document on Prudent and Professional Conduct of Insurance and Takaful Brokers. The instrument itself, and the source of the paragraph 16.1 wording quoted above. Issued 29 August 2025, effective 1 January 2026. Read the policy document (PDF, bnm.gov.my). Paragraph 16.1 read directly from this document on 24 July 2026.
- Bank Negara Malaysia, register of approved insurance and takaful brokers. The current list of firms the policy document applies to. View the register (bnm.gov.my). Checked 24 July 2026.
- Skrine, "Bank Negara issues Policy Document on Prudent and Professional Conduct of Insurance and Takaful Brokers". Legal alert, September 2025. Used for the issue and commencement dates, the scope of application, and the deferral of paragraph 11.2 to 1 January 2027. Read the alert (skrine.com). Accessed 24 July 2026.
- Rahmat Lim & Partners, alert on the same policy document. Used to corroborate the dates and scope independently. Read the alert (rahmatlim.com). Accessed 24 July 2026.
- Our own check of eight broker websites. Carried out 24 July 2026. Method and limits are stated in full in the observation section above, including the two firms excluded from the count and what the method would not have detected.
- Related reading on this site: Is your website still PDPA-compliant?, which matters here because publishing a document is a disclosure and personal data often travels inside signed accounts. Also the credibility checklist, on what a regulated-sector site needs to show before a buyer will take it seriously.
A note on what this is
This is a website-practice resource, not legal or compliance advice. We build and maintain websites for regulated sectors; we do not advise on prudential compliance, and we are not your compliance function. The authority here is the policy document itself, quoted above and linked in full. If a specific question turns on interpretation, put it to Bank Negara Malaysia or your own compliance counsel rather than relying on our reading. Everything on this page reflects the position as at 24 July 2026 and has not been re-verified since; policy documents are amended, and the instrument governs, not our summary of it.