Bangkok, Thursday 21 May 2020 - SEC is conducting a public hearing on draft notifications relating to mutual fund unitholding which will see the restrictions on unitholding lifted in a bid to reduce obstacles to mutual funds to grow their size and cut operating costs.
Under the amendments, SEC has proposed to
lift the limitations on unitholding which bar any person or any associated
person from holding investment units in a mutual fund over one third of the
total sold units, but asset management companies are still required to disclose
information regarding unitholding over the one-third rule to investors and such
unitholders are not allowed to exercise their rights of voting for the units
they hold beyond the one-third rule. In addition, business operators offering mutual
fund brokerage services to omnibus accounts have to observe the regulations concerning
the limitation of the voting rights and the disclosure requirement over the
one-third rule so that asset management companies can disclose such information
to investors. The afore-mentioned amendments do not apply to property funds and
infrastructure funds.
SEC is therefore seeking public comments on
13 draft notification amendments following a public hearing on the concept
released at the beginning of 2020. Most respondents were in favor of the regulatory
updates and suggested that other regulations could be used to oversee fund management
and provide investor protection.
The consultation paper can be found at www.sec.or.th/hearing. Stakeholders and interested parties are welcome to give
comments and suggestions via the SEC’s website, or email: thanunya@sec.or.th or sumitra@sec.or.th. The public hearing ends on 22 June 2020.
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