The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) plans to expand financial access to the grassroots level by setting up a team to raise investment awareness in provincial areas and establish an investor protection fund.
This is the first time the SEC, Thailand's capital market regulator, is reaching out to lower-income and provincial people to enhance their investment knowledge.
Secretary-general Ruenvadee Suwanmongkol said the SEC's framework and direction during her tenure is to facilitate the country's 20-year national strategy, capital market development plan and the amended Securities and Exchange Act of 2019.
Ms Ruenvadee, the first female secretary-general of the SEC, was appointed on May 1.
The SEC's work must support rapid changes of the capital market, long-term sustainability aligned with environmental, social and corporate governance policy, exemption of filing fees for green bonds, and continuance of the results from projects implemented by the previous secretary-general, she said.
"The national strategy talks about accessibility and development, hence the [SEC's] core policy is a focus on market access, upgrading investor protection and expanding the base of investors to cover a wider area, with the new project called 'SEC Caravan to Provincial Areas'," said Ms Ruenvadee.
"My responsibility is to ensure the policy time frame will be implemented accordingly and advocate for a capital market for all."
Thailand's population is 69 million, but only 1.5 million people have mutual fund accounts, with a total of 6 million accounts. For securities trading accounts, around 1.5-1.6 million are registered.
This shows participation in Thailand's capital market is limited to a few groups of people, she said.
"The SEC's board has approved setting up an SEC's people network for the first time in each province to help build awareness and recognition of the capital market among this segment," said Ms Ruenvadee.
The SEC Caravan will first visit Khon Kaen and cooperate with local authorities and trade agencies to develop demand and supply for the capital market, providing education about investment in the capital market.
The SEC is also studying the establishment of an investor protection fund to cover all participants in the capital market using several investment tools.
"This will take around 3-6 months to study. In order to set up such a fund, we should do it on a step-by-step basis, from building up mechanisms for filing complaints around the clock to beefing up the role of the Thai Investors Association to help investors with class action lawsuits," said Ms Ruenvadee.
Regarding connectivity with foreign capital markets, the SEC plans to revive a mutual recognition of mutual funds with Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission to provide a fast track for bilateral mutual fund investment.
