In a Bursa Malaysia annual report or announcement, "Pledged Securities Account for [name]" is an account qualifier: it identifies a Central Depository System (CDS) account held in the name of an authorised nominee, designated for shares that have been charged or pledged, with the person named after "for" as their beneficial owner. It does not say how much has been borrowed or on what terms, or whether anything is outstanding at all, and it identifies the financier only as far as the account holder's name, or a pledgee named in the qualifier, does.
This note is a guide for shareholders and their advisers to a label met in annual reports and substantial-shareholder announcements, not a description of how any particular facility is held.
Key takeaways
- The label is statutory. Section 40(3) of the Securities Industry (Central Depositories) Act 1991 designates a chargee's or pledgee's account for charged or pledged shares as the "Pledged Securities Account".
- The Listing Requirements put it in print. Where one of the 30 largest securities account holders is an authorised nominee, the annual report must state the account qualifier field.
- The name after "for" is the declared beneficial owner. An authorised nominee holds for one beneficial owner per account.
- The list is by account, not by person. One shareholder can appear on several lines.
- It is silent on the loan. No amount, no terms, no margin level — and a changed balance may be a release, a transfer, a sale, or an enforcement.
What "Pledged Securities Account for [name]" means
The label describes an account, not a transaction. A typical line reads ABC Nominees (Tempatan) Sdn Bhd, Pledged Securities Account for [name], and usually has three parts.
- The account holder. The authorised nominee, usually a nominee company, in whose name the CDS account stands. Nominee company names typically carry "(Tempatan)" or "(Asing)", for Malaysian or foreign beneficial owners.
- The designation. "Pledged Securities Account" marks the account as one maintained for charged or pledged securities.
- The name after "for". The beneficial owner, as the nominee has named that person to the Depository — ordinarily the one who gave the security, not the party that took it.
Some qualifiers also name a pledgee or intermediary between the designation and "for", and some entries end with a bracketed number or short tag that nothing in the provisions quoted here defines.
Where does the "Pledged Securities Account" label come from?
The designation comes from section 40(3) of the Securities Industry (Central Depositories) Act 1991 ("SICDA"), and the words "for [name]" are added under Bursa Malaysia Depository's guidelines.
Under section 40(1), where a deposited security is charged or pledged, the central depository or the authorised depository agent "shall, on a request in writing made by the depositor, chargee or pledgee, as the case may be, transfer or cause to be transferred such security into the securities account of the chargee or pledgee, as the case may be, maintained for such purpose." Section 40(3) provides that this account "shall be designated as the 'Pledged Securities Account'".
Bursa Malaysia Depository's CDS procedures include "Guidelines on Account Qualifier", which set the wording an authorised nominee uses for an account holding pledged securities: "Pledged Securities Account for [name of beneficial owner]" or, where a pledgee or intermediary is named, "Pledged Securities Account - [pledgee or intermediary] for [name of beneficial owner]".
Where does the list of 30 largest securities account holders in an annual report come from?
The list comes from the Record of Depositors, which Bursa Malaysia Depository provides to the listed issuer; the Listing Requirements prescribe what the annual report prints from it.
Paragraph 9.25(1) of the Bursa Malaysia Securities Main Market Listing Requirements requires the annual report to set out the items in Part A of Appendix 9C, unless the three conditions in that paragraph for publishing the information on the issuer's website instead are met. Paragraph 23(e) of that Part requires the names of the 30 securities account holders with the largest number of securities in each class "according to the Record of Depositors (without aggregating the securities from different securities accounts belonging to the same person)", with the number and percentage held. It continues: "In the case of securities account holders which are authorised nominees as defined under the Securities Industry (Central Depositories) Act 1991, information in the account qualifier field of the securities account must also be stated." The ACE Market Listing Requirements carry the same item in Part A of their own Appendix 9C.
So the list is one of accounts, not people, and it is a snapshot: unless Part A specifies otherwise, the information is "made up to a date not earlier than 6 weeks from the date of the notice of the annual general meeting" (paragraph 9.25(2)).
The label also appears in announcements of substantial shareholders' notices. A notice on becoming a substantial shareholder under section 137 of the Companies Act 2016 gives, unless the interest cannot be related to particular shares, the name of "the person who is registered as the shareholder", and the registered-holder entry in the issuer's announcements is where a nominee and its qualifier are commonly seen.
Why a nominee company's name appears instead of the shareholder's own
SICDA allows an account to be held by the owner or by a nominee. Section 25(4) says: "Every securities account opened with a central depository shall be in the name of the beneficial owner of the deposited securities or in the name of an authorized nominee." (The spelling is the Act's.) Where a nominee holds the account, the nominee is the depositor on the record.
The Act defines "beneficial owner" as "the ultimate owner of the deposited securities", a term that "does not include a nominee of any description". The person named after "for" is therefore the one the record identifies as owner, subject to whatever security has been given.
A nominee account is not a pool: section 25A(1) provides that an authorised nominee "shall only hold deposited securities for one beneficial owner in respect of each securities account", and the Rules of Bursa Malaysia Depository carry the same one-owner rule, subject to exemptions under the securities laws. The exception is the exempt authorised nominee, which paragraph 7.21 of the Main Market Listing Requirements describes as one "exempted from compliance with the provisions of subsection 25A(1) of SICDA" and which may hold shares "for multiple beneficial owners in one securities account" (an omnibus account).
Because accounts are not aggregated, one name can appear several times in one list: a shareholder can occupy one line under an account in their own name and further lines under nominee accounts, each with its own qualifier and balance. The aggregated picture is in the same statement's tables of substantial shareholders' and directors' interests.
How votes and dividends on nominee-held shares reach the beneficial owner depends on the arrangements between owner, nominee and financier; our note on dividends, voting and corporate actions takes that up separately, for a stock loan.
What a Pledged Securities Account entry does not show
The entry gives an account holder, a qualifier, a share count and a percentage on one date. It does not show how much has been borrowed: facility size, drawdown, pricing and margin levels are in private documents between the shareholder and the financier.
Nor does the label distinguish between kinds of financing. Section 40 covers a charge or pledge "in favour of any person", so a broker's share margin facility and a term facility can carry the same designation.
| Question a reader asks | What the label shows | What it does not show | Where the answer would be found |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who owns the shares? | The beneficial owner named after "for" (SICDA, section 25A). | That person's total interest across accounts, or who stands behind a corporate name. | The substantial shareholders' and directors' interest tables in the same statement. |
| Are the shares security for financing? | That the account is designated for charged or pledged securities (SICDA, section 40(3)). | The security documents or their validity, whether a secured obligation is still outstanding, or whether shares in other accounts are also subject to security. | The parties' own documents, which are private. |
| How much is borrowed, and is the facility drawn? | Nothing. | The facility limit, the amount drawn, or whether anything is outstanding. | Private facility documents. |
| Who is the financier? | The nominee's name and, in some qualifiers, a named pledgee or intermediary. | Who provided the funds, where the named party acts for another. | Private facility documents. |
| Has a margin level been reached? | Nothing. | Margin ratios, top-up calls, or cure periods. | Private facility documents. |
| Have the shares been sold, or will they be? | Only the balance on the statement date. | Why a balance changed, or what happens next. | For a substantial shareholder or a director, the notices of change the issuer announces. |
The label is not a disclosure rule
We are not aware, as at 11 September 2026, of a stand-alone requirement in Malaysia for a shareholder or a listed company to disclose that shares have been pledged or charged. Disclosure instead runs through the substantial-shareholder and director-interest regimes and the issuer's own announcement duties.
The 5% notification is a duty of the holder under sections 136 to 139 of the Companies Act 2016, and directors give their own notices under section 219; the issuer announces what it receives. The account label is nobody's notification: it is a feature of how the Depository designates accounts and of what an annual report prints.
Whether creating, varying or enforcing a particular charge is itself notifiable is a question for Malaysian counsel, taken up in our note on substantial-shareholder disclosure when you charge Bursa shares.
What a changed balance in a Pledged Securities Account does and does not mean
The label does not, by itself, establish a sale, a forced sale, an imminent one, or financial difficulty: it records how an account is designated. A reader usually has two statements a year apart and a number that has moved, and a lower balance is consistent with several events that look identical on the page:
- A release. Under section 40(4) of SICDA, once a charge or pledge is discharged or released and the chargee or pledgee confirms it in writing, the securities go back to the chargor's or pledgor's own account.
- A move. Shares transferred to a different financier appear under another nominee's name.
- A sale by the owner. An ordinary disposal.
- Enforcement. A realisation by the financier after an unmet call or another default — the margin-call sequence is described in our note on margin calls, top-ups and forced sale.
Nor does the absence of the label say much: the list covers only the 30 largest accounts on one date, and section 40 moves shares into such an account only on a written request, so the label speaks only for security that is held in one.
For a substantial shareholder, the dated record is in the announced notices of change, which must contain "the date and circumstances by reason of which that change has occurred" (Companies Act 2016, section 138(2)). Nor is the list a measure of control: the 33% analysis under Malaysia's take-over framework — the Capital Markets and Services Act 2007 and the Malaysian Code on Take-Overs and Mergers 2016 (the Take-Overs Code) — turns on the voting shares and voting rights a person holds or controls together with persons acting in concert.
Where our role ends
Malaysia Stock Loans arranges share-backed financing — the instrument is described in what a Malaysia stock loan is; we are not a law firm, and we do not interpret a particular company's filing. This note explains vocabulary found in public documents; it does not describe the custody or account arrangements of any facility we arrange.
How security over listed shares is held, whether it gives rise to a notification, and what an issuer's filings must then show are matters for the shareholder's own Malaysian counsel and, where relevant, the company secretary.
Questions we are often asked
01What does "Pledged Securities Account for [name]" mean in a Bursa-listed company's annual report?
02Who is the beneficial owner of shares held in a Pledged Securities Account?
03Why does a nominee company's name appear in the list of 30 largest shareholders instead of the shareholder's own name?
04Can an authorised nominee hold shares for more than one beneficial owner in one CDS account?
05Does a Pledged Securities Account entry show how much has been borrowed against the shares?
06Does a Pledged Securities Account label mean the shares have been sold or are about to be sold?
07Is there a separate rule in Malaysia requiring pledged shares to be disclosed?
This note is general orientation on a label that appears in Bursa Malaysia filings; it is not legal, tax, or investment advice, and not a view on any listed issuer, shareholder, or financier. Quotations are from the Securities Industry (Central Depositories) Act 1991, the Companies Act 2016, and the Main Market Listing Requirements; the Depository's rules and procedures are summarised, in line with our editorial standards. Rules change, and the current texts published by Bursa Malaysia, Securities Commission Malaysia, and the Federal legislation portal govern. Whether any of them applies to your position is confirmed by your own Malaysian counsel.
