Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the Intelligence Business Analytic System. And what is that? Well let's dig in here. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Chiang Rai Times, that is chiangraitimes.com, the article is titled: Thailand Targets Nominee Property Deals, Foreign Buyers Face Rising Legal Risk in 2026. Quoting directly: "For many years, some foreign buyers use Thai companies to hold land. On paper, Thai shareholders owned 51% of the shares while the foreign buyer funded the purchase and kept control behind the scenes. That setup gave the foreigner indirect control of land, even though the Land Code does not allow direct land ownership by non-Thais." Quoting further: "Now that route is closing quickly. During 2025 and early 2026, the DBD rolled out" - and DBD is the Department of Business Development - "the DBD rolled out its Intelligence Business Analytics System (IBAS). The system checks company filings, tax data and land records to spot warning signs. For example, it can identify inactive companies, Thai shareholders with little money, or cases where a foreigner appears to be the real owner. Officials plan to review 21,459 foreign-linked cases. At the same time, they are paying close attention to high-risk markets such as Phuket, Hua Hin, Koh Samui, Pattaya and Bangkok. So far, more than 852 cases have already led to legal action with reported damages above 15.1 billion Baht." 

So the thing to take away from this video, Thailand now has the tools in place to assess corporate entities and to ascertain whether or not they are basically being used as a front to own land for foreigners. I've discussed this issue of nominees in kind of a different context. I have some issues with regard; so I look at the nominee issue, I kind of bifurcate it. There are the corporate structures that are used to hold land in contravention of Thailand's laws restricting foreign ownership of land, and I very much understand the policy thinking behind wanting to go after that practice. My issue though is like operational companies that are just set up in line with the Foreign Business Act on a 49/51 setup in a Thai's favour can be legitimate. In fact there are a number of them that are legitimate. We assist folks with those kind of structures all the time, and this whole notion - I talked about, there was an article in the Pattaya Mail about this, it was said that, "oh they are not so into issues associated with the legal form." Well they are regulators, that's what they should be worried about is the legality. But to be clear, to my mind there is a difference between going after an operational company that's just operating in line with Thai Law and happens to have chosen their compliance method of being 49/51, that's a different thing than these companies that are holding land because then the nominee, which nominees are on their face already illegal, but then the nominee is also acting as a front to contravene Thai Law on real estate ownership. To my mind, that's an order of magnitude different from just a Company that happens to be 49/51 in its structure. Again, it's the intention behind the structure that is going to matter. And as we talked about in other videos I have made contemporaneously but this one, that seems to be what authorities in Thailand are concerned about as well.