The javax.ejb.SessionContext.SessionContext.getEJBLocalObject and javax.ejb.SessionContext.SessionContext.getEJBObject implementations returns always new proxies. The api states "Obtain a reference to the EJB object that is currently associated with the instance". My interpretation is that this api should always return a proxy to the current instance. At least for stateful session beans a proxy for the actual session bean should be returned else the bean instance has no mean to return a reference to itself (except when the stateful session bean is passed as parameter).