Odaily News The Thai Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is preparing to deploy a DLT-based debt instrument trading system, with the main goal of encouraging securities firms to engage in digital token trading.
According to SEC deputy secretary-general Jomkwan Kongsakul, the regulator has approved four digital token projects and is evaluating two more, with a focus on green tokens and investment-driven schemes.
Kongsakul explained that it takes 7-14 days for bonds purchased from the primary market to be traded in the secondary market. Investors also face challenges such as limited access to certain products and high costs and poor liquidity of some bonds.
At the same time, issuers need to process a large amount of manual paperwork, which is prone to delays and errors. Therefore, the use of DLT is expected to ensure efficiency and streamline processes while addressing barriers to the capital markets.
The regulator aims to fully digitize the bond trading system in both the primary and secondary markets, including settlement, trading, investor registration and return payments. Kongsakul promised that competition will remain open as companies with their own DLT infrastructure can build independent chains as long as they ensure interoperability within unified standards. Other companies can access the SEC's public chain at an affordable cost. Going forward, there may be multiple trading chains, with all DLT-based systems interconnected through a shared ledger, which is expected to be completed soon.
Existing financial products will remain but will be converted to digital counterparts to facilitate smooth transactions on the DLT network. This approach facilitates fragmented trading at a lower cost and improves liquidity by bringing in more participants, while enabling real-time transactions and reducing settlement issues.
In addition, the regulator is developing the SEC Open API data platform to provide comprehensive data on all listed companies to help investors conduct better analysis and make more informed investment decisions. (Bangkok Post)