Stock Exchange of Thailand to Open Digital Asset Exchange Next Year

By Prashant Jha

SET or the Stock Exchange of Thailand has recently come out with an official statement that publicises its intention to launch a digital asset platform of its own next year. Of late, rumours had already been doing the rounds, suggesting that SET was going to roll out such a late platform. This announcement comes as a confirmation of those reports.

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It is now sure that the launch of the brand new digital asset platform will be a part of SET’s three-year (2019 to 2021) strategic development plan. The announcement has confirmed that the new platform will facilitate a digitization for the existing local capital market in two main directions.

The first area of development will be to ensure full digitization of the existing capital market infrastructure so as to smoothen the transition towards making operations paperless. The other area would be to create a new ecosystem for providing support to digital assets. This will help drive innovation, foster opportunities and fuel the investment market.

The SET announcement elaborates:

“In 2019, the Thai capital market will experience a real transformation into the digital age in two areas. The first one is a complete digitization of the capital market infrastructure covering such enhancements as the paperless account opening process through electronic identification verification, electronic payment of stamp duty and direct-debit registration processes. In addition, SET’s FundConnext mutual fund platform which is currently connected with 19 asset management firms in Thailand will be linked with Vestima, a global fund processing platform operated by Clearstream. FundConnext will connect the Thai investment fund market to global investors by serving as a gateway for investors in 56 countries to capture investment opportunities. For the capital market’s new payment service introduced last year, this year the services will enhanced to process interbank payment, making it more effective operationally and financially for securities firms. These services will be rolled out in Q3/2019.”

The securities firms that are members of the SET will have the scope for applying to become dealers and brokers for the new platform.

The possibility of this launch had become apparent back in January this year, when Pattera Dilokrungthirapop,the vice-chairman of the board of governors for the SET, stated that the SET had plans to apply for a license (to operate a digital asset exchange) from Thailand’s Finance Ministry this year.