Cross-border platform due

Business News : Monday December 10, 2007

STOCKS

Cross-border platform due

The Thailand Securities Depository, the country's central clearing house for the stock market, expects to facilitate cross-border transactions by the fourth quarter of 2008.

The TSD also said it would upgrade its services to meet standards set under the Group of 30, an international body promoting clearing and settlement standards.

Other development plans include expanding TSD services to serve as a centralised clearing house for equity, debt and derivative instruments, cutting the clearing-and-settlement cycle to two business days from three, and reducing default risk and costs.

Sopawadee Lertmanaschai, the TSD chief executive, said that all clearing operations would be centralised with the Thailand Clearing House, a TSD subsidiary, starting in 2008.

She said services for annual shareholders' meetings would be expanded to allow electronic management of registration, voting, vote-counting, display and proxy voting.

The TSD also plans to boost the number of e-dividend users by 110,000 to 770,000 by the end of 2008, covering 70% of all shareholders.

The service allows shareholders to receive dividend payments from listed companies through direct fund transfers.

''TSD will achieve service excellence through rapid, integrated and proactive customer service,'' Ms Sopawadee said. ''We will be ready for cross-border transactions and international linkages, thus contributing to the Thai market's overall competitiveness.''

By : Bangkok Post