Bangkok, July 21, 2015 ? The SEC has driven forward the plan to develop financial reporting ecosystem to promote financial statement quality and increase the number of auditors to support the growth of Thai capital market. This will be beneficial for the operation of businesses and investment decision making of investors.

Rapee Sucharitakul, SEC Secretary-General said that the SEC will commence the plan to promote proper financial reporting ecosystem recently approved by the SEC Board. Aiming to boost quality of financial reporting system, the plan will emphasize on the whole process starting from financial statement preparers, comprising chief financial officer, chief accountant and accounting staff where qualifications and responsibilities of the preparers will be determined. Besides, expectation of the preparers? duties and responsibilities will be communicated through training courses and seminars along with the collaboration between the SEC and the Federation of Accounting Professions under His Majesty The King?s Royal Patronage (FAP) to tackle accounting issues and problems. Furthermore, proactive communication on the SEC?s clear expectation will be carried out across various channels on a continuous basis. The implementation of the plan will optimize the balance and lay down a solid foundation in the entire system, rather than focusing on stringent oversight on the third line of defense as auditors and audit firms.

"In addition, the SEC has accommodated the increase in the number of auditors in the capital market to support market growth. Apart from the ?Capital Market Auditors? project co-organized by the SEC and the FAP for the second consecutive year, the SEC has streamlined the work procedures and increased manpower to speed up the auditor approval process, resulting in significantly shorter approval period. By 2017, the SEC set to achieve the average listed company per auditor ratio at 3:1 whereas the current ratio is 4:1, representing 15% annual increase (30 auditors a year).  Moreover, audit firms will be enabled to screen quality of their auditors prior to filing with the SEC the applications for approval as capital market auditors in order to encourage the audit firms to take greater responsibilities in quality control,? Rapee added.