Thailand ready to amend 2019 Securities and Exchange Act

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In a move that was strongly anticipated, Tipsuda Thavaramara, the deputy secretary general of the Thai Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) explained on Tuesday that the agency was ready to introduce regulations that would allow for the issuing of digital shares as well as a tokenized securities depository platform.

This change was to make an amendment to the Securities and Exchange Act of 2019, which should have a significant impact on welcoming new participants to their capital market as well as introducing new blockchain technology to digital trading.

The 2019 SEC Act was enacted just two weeks ago, but it became necessary for an amendment to the act to be created. The SEC recognized that the use of blockchain technology would have a significant impact on improving security tokenization.

This was not the only major change. Included was a change in regulation that would allow scripless transactions to cover the primary market for all different types of securities. Scripless securities trading contains no physical certificate that is either issued or exchanged. Instead, only book entries provide records of the security holdings and settlements.

Before the amendment, the act only allowed for this kind of coverage on the secondary market. This would open the system to tokenized securities, which Thavaramara explained was a major reason for the adjustment. “This change will have a major impact as the amended Act provides a legal basis to support [the country’s capital market] the tokenization platform.”

This will create a set of new opportunities for additional market players supporting digital shares, which has many in the industry very excited.

This year, Thailand has been making dramatic strides to improve the overall effectiveness of their markets as well as enticing new investors to the country. In March, they announced that the country’s stock exchange would launch a digital assets platform that would become available in 2020. The project was part of a strategic plan that would encourage and develop a digital asset infrastructure that financial analysts have described as a “one-stop” market for digital assets and securities.

In February, Thailand’s National Legislative Assembly approved the use of scripless and tokenized securities based on the use of blockchain technology. This new amendment appears to be the follow-through of that act, as the SEC is now actively involved in pursuing those aims.

In March, Thailand’s securities regulator approved the first coin offering portal where exchanges and trades could be made using digital currencies. It was the SEC’s Board of Directors that approved this portal, imposing source codes and codes of conduct that would be used to regulate the exchange.