The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) announces the first collaboration of its new post-trade service with four leading banks – HSBC Thailand, Standard Chartered Bank (Thai) plc, Bangkok Bank plc, and Citibank Thailand – in which they agree to send corporate action news via SWIFT messages starting from this month.
SWIFT’s Corporate Actions solution is the format used for transmitting information of listed firms to depository participants directly. It enables members, including custodian banks, to directly receive information and data from firms with accuracy, speed, and timeliness in term of straight-through processing (STP). This reduces manual intervention in the dissemination and the potential for errors, said Bordin Unakul, SET Executive Vice President of Post-trade Service & Development.
“In the first phase, we will focus on providing SWIFT’s Corporate Actions service to members of the Thailand Securities Depository Co., Ltd. (TSD). SET is also in the middle of developing corporate action news by STP to brokers and expects to launch the service to broker members by next year,” Bordin added.
Teera Aphaiwongse, advisor to the SWIFT Asia-Pacific Board, said; "SWIFT and its community are delighted with this new corporate action distribution capability. This ISO-standard-based solution will bring the Thai market to the highest levels in corporate event notification services. Timely, accurate and standardized CA information is of crucial value to capital markets, as it reduces risk and eliminates significant costs. We congratulate TSD for this move forward, which will increase the appetite of international investors, as they will seek to invest in a safer market place."
Corporate action news using SWIFT messages is an international standard of communication popular among financial institutions. Information sent via SWIFT includes dividend payments, recapitalization, and book closing for shareholders’ meetings. The transmissions also boost liquidity and increase business opportunities of members of TSD.
TSD, under the SET group, has been assigned a rating at "A+" by Thomas Murray, the global leading rating provider for central securities depository, and has received an "AA-" rating for its Asset Servicing Risk with positive impact thanks to the launch of SWIFT messages for corporate action news.
