MBRS — the Malaysian Business Reporting System — is SSM’s online submission platform, built on the XBRL data format. Malaysian companies use it to lodge three things: the annual return, the financial statements and reports, and exemption applications relating to either. Only an appointed licensed company secretary or company agent may lodge through it, so the submission itself is your secretary’s job.
Key takeaways
- MBRS is a delivery channel, not new accounting. SSM calls it “the submission platform based on the extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) format”. The accounts do not change; the file format does.
- Your director cannot press submit. Only the appointed licensed company secretary or company agent may lodge annual documents through MBRS.
- Under MBRS 2.0 the lodger needs a live practising certificate registered under section 241 of the Companies Act 2016, uploaded at first login to the portal.
- SSM’s own lodgement fees are small. RM150 for a private company’s annual return, RM50 for audited financial statements, RM20 if unaudited, RM100 for an extension of time.
- The clock starts at circulation, not at year end. A private company lodges its financial statements within thirty days of circulating them.
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What is MBRS, and what do you file through it?
MBRS is the platform SSM built so that statutory filings arrive as structured data rather than paper. SSM defines it as the submission platform based on the XBRL format, and it accepts three families of document: the annual return, financial statements and reports, and exemption applications related to either.
SSM launched MBRS as a submission platform in 2018. What travels through it is unchanged: the accounts your accountant prepared, tagged into a standard vocabulary a machine can read. SSM applies the Malaysian Private Entities Reporting Standards (MPERS) to private companies, and the Malaysian Financial Reporting Standards (MFRS) to public companies and the entities regulated alongside them. MBRS is one leg of the annual cycle; the rest is in our guide to company secretarial compliance in Malaysia.
Who is allowed to lodge a filing through MBRS?
Only the appointed licensed company secretary or company agent may lodge through MBRS. SSM splits the work in two: a Maker prepares and uploads the XBRL file, and a Lodger reviews it, approves or rejects it, signs it digitally, pays and lodges it. Anyone the secretary appoints can be the Maker; the Lodger cannot be delegated.
“Only the appointed licensed Company Secretary or Company’s Agent can lodge the annual documents to the Registrar in the MBRS platform.”
Two conditions sit behind that. Under MBRS 2.0 the Lodger must hold an active practising certificate registered under section 241 of the Companies Act 2016, uploaded at first login to the portal. Lodgers must also buy a digital certificate — a PKI registration — through Pos Digicert’s 1CRS system.
The practical effect: a company without a properly appointed secretary has no route into MBRS, whatever state its accounts are in. The appointment rules are in our guide to appointing a company secretary in Malaysia.
How does an MBRS filing actually get made?
Two pieces of software do the work. mTool is a free offline application from SSM in which figures are entered, validated and turned into an XBRL file. mPortal is the online half, reached through SSM4U, where the file is uploaded, approved, signed, paid for and lodged. Tagging means matching each figure to the right concept in SSM’s taxonomy.
- Update the particulars first. Any change of directors, address or shareholding must be approved in CRS before the anniversary date, so the approved version downloads into mTool.
- Prepare in mTool. Figures are entered and mapped — the amount of fixed assets to Property, Plant and Equipment — then validated offline.
- Upload the XBRL file. The Maker uploads it to mPortal, possible only once the Lodger has established the association from their side.
- Lodger review. The Lodger reviews the file, then approves or rejects it.
- Sign, pay, lodge. The Lodger signs the file digitally, makes payment and lodges it with the Registrar.
Tagging is the step vendors sell against: XBRL providers name complex taxonomy mapping and mTool validation errors as the usual failure points.
What does SSM charge to lodge through MBRS?
SSM’s published lodgement fees are modest. A private company pays RM150 for its annual return and RM50 for audited financial statements, or RM20 if they are unaudited. A public company pays RM500 and RM200. Any exemption application — an extension of time, a waiver, a relief — costs RM100.
SSM publishes the figures itself, under the Companies Act 2016 Schedule (Regulation 8):
| Submission | Private company | Public company |
|---|---|---|
| Annual return (AR) | RM150 | RM500 |
| Financial statements, audited (FS) | RM50 | RM200 |
| Financial statements, non-audited (FS) | RM20 | — |
| Exemption application (EA) | RM100 for each application | |
A private Sdn Bhd lodging an annual return plus one set of audited financial statements therefore pays SSM RM200 for the year, excluding the secretary’s professional fee, XBRL preparation and the digital certificate. Whether an audit is needed at all is a separate question, covered in our guide to audit exemption for a Sdn Bhd.
Which deadline is your MBRS submission meeting?
Every MBRS submission discharges a specific duty in the Companies Act 2016. The annual return is due within thirty days of the anniversary of incorporation. A private company circulates its financial statements within six months of year end, then lodges them within thirty days. The platform is the channel; the deadline comes from the Act.
| Submission | Deadline | Runs from | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Annual return | Thirty days | Anniversary of incorporation | s.68(1) |
| Circulating financial statements | Six months | Financial year end | s.258(1)(a) |
| Lodging financial statements | Thirty days | Date of circulation | s.259(1)(a) |
| More time to lodge FS (EA5B) | Apply before expiry | — | s.259(2) |
| More time to lodge the AR (EA7) | Apply before expiry | — | s.609(2) |
A newly incorporated company gets a reprieve on the first: section 68(2) disapplies the annual return in the calendar year of incorporation. Circulation is covered in our article on circulating financial statements to members, and the annual return in our guide to the SSM annual return deadline for a Sdn Bhd.
Missing these is expensive twice over. An officer who contravenes section 259 is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding RM50,000, plus up to RM1,000 for each day a continuing offence lasts. Section 68(8) lets the Registrar strike a company off the register if it fails to lodge an annual return for three or more consecutive years.
What changed when MBRS 2.0 went live?
SSM went live with MBRS 2.0 on 25 September 2024 and phased XBRL filing in over three stages. It widened financial-statement and key-financial-indicator filing from 9 submission types to 15, rebuilt the taxonomy on the IFRS Taxonomy 2022, brought in companies regulated by Bank Negara Malaysia and accounts under the Companies Act 1965, and added the practising-certificate rule.
The phasing caught companies out. Annual returns and unaudited financial statements under the Companies Act 2016 became mandatory on the new platform from 1 December 2024; audited financial statements of all Companies Act 2016 companies followed on 1 June 2025. If your last filing predates those dates, the next will differ.
Frequently asked questions
Can a director file the company’s MBRS submission themselves?
No. SSM permits only the appointed licensed company secretary or company agent to lodge annual documents through MBRS. A director or accountant can be appointed as the Maker, who prepares and uploads the XBRL file, but nobody other than the Lodger can review, sign, pay for or lodge it.
Do we still file through MBRS if the company is dormant or audit-exempt?
Yes. Audit exemption changes which fee applies, not whether you file: SSM charges a private company RM20 for non-audited financial statements against RM50 for audited ones. The lodgement duty comes from section 259 of the Companies Act 2016 and applies each financial year regardless.
What if we are going to miss the MBRS lodgement deadline?
Apply for an extension before the period expires, not after. Section 259(2) lets the Registrar extend the lodgement period if the application is made before it runs out, and MBRS carries dedicated entry points — EA5B for financial statements, EA7 for the annual return — at RM100 each.
PT Corporate Services acts as the named company secretary for Sdn Bhd clients from Kota Damansara, Petaling Jaya, and lodges their SSM filings through CRS and MBRS. This is general information, not legal advice. Message us on WhatsApp at +6017 646 5338, Monday to Friday, 9:00am–6:00pm.
Sources
- SSM, Malaysian Business Reporting System (MBRS)
- SSM, Annual Submission — roles, tools and the fee schedule
- SSM, MBRS Frequently Asked Questions, version 2.4 (Oct 2024)
- SSM, MBRS Enhancement: MBRS 2.0
- Companies Act 2016 (Act 777) — ss.68, 241, 258, 259
- BDO Malaysia, MBRS 2.0