Bangkok, 10 March 2021 – The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has initiated the development of the Single Form to facilitate investment account opening in the capital market under the same standard. It will solve the problem of filling in a lot of repetitive information many times and allow investors to open an investment account faster and more conveniently. The use of single form will also support the SEC Strategic Plan regarding expansion of long-term investor bases.
The SEC has collaborated with the single form working group to develop the single form, which contains a standard information set. The working group consists of representatives from stakeholders in all sectors of the capital market, namely the Association of Thai Securities Companies (ASCO), the Association of Investment Management Companies (AIMC), the Thai Bankers Association, the Association of International Banks, the Thai Life Assurance Association, and investment unit selling agents. This is the first time that the single form will be used for opening an investment account for capital market products in all categories. Initiated in September 2019, the single form will allow investors to fill in information only once when they open an account to invest in any product in the capital market, for example, equity, debt securities, mutual funds or derivatives. Investors may also use the information set filled in the single form to open more investment accounts with other service providers.
Currently, a lot of different forms are in use and a lot of similar information is required in different forms. As a result, investors face the inconvenience of filling in the same information repeatedly every time they open a new account. The single form helps to solve such issue. In addition, investors may request the current service provider who has a compatible system to send the account opening information set to the new service provider through an interconnected system on the condition that investors personally check whether or not the received information is accurate and up-to-date. In such case, investors do not need to go to a branch of the service provider to fill in the same information set in person. This is another step towards digital transformation of the capital market. The single form helps to speed up the account opening process for investors and supports the SEC Strategic Plan in the area of investor base expansion to allow the general public to access services and capital market products faster and more conveniently.
The Single Form will be used, starting from 1 July 2021. Intermediaries must set up a work system to support the use of such form. In addition, the SEC supports the private sector in developing a centralized digital infrastructure. Once completed, the infrastructure will be able to interconnect all service providers and support efficient transfer of information.
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