The Thai Securities and Exchange Commission is concerned about investors duplicating the information that they give intermediaries because of differences between the forms that those intermediaries require them to fill in.

The regulator wants to standardise questions on the forms, hoping to cut down the costs and inconvenience that investors incur when gaining access to services in the capital market. To deal with this, the SEC is proposing to introduce single form for securities transactions throughout the industry and is canvassing public opinion about the templates.

The standardised form might include an entry form (such as an application form) on which investors submit information before using the market's services and an "ongoing form" that relates to the execution of investment-related transactions, e.g., subscription, redemption and switching.

The regulator is mulling over a rule to stop intermediaries from refusing to provide services to investors who fill in a single form and submit supporting documents as specified by that single form. By another rule, intermediaries might ask them for information on top of the information they submit in the single form, as long as this is vital. Intermediaries who provide securities transactions on digital platforms might not be required to prepare information in paper form as long as the digital datasets are identical.

Effective date

The regulator wants the new rules to become effective on 1 July 2020, thereupon applying to all new customer. It adds: "For existing clients, intermediaries must obtain information as specified in single form in the 1st round of updating client information after the single form requirement takes effect."