Today, the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) and Clearstream Banking S.A., an international central securities depository, launched a joint connection to enable cross-border funds transactions.
The new linkage between SET’s mutual fund platform FundConnext and Clearstream’s global fund processing platform Vestima enables international investors to access the Thai fund market. As of August 2019, the Thai mutual fund market encloses assets under management at THB 4.01 trillion (EUR 119 billion). In return, Thai investors have access to more than 190,000 investment funds close to 50 jurisdictions worldwide via Vestima.
The linkage of the two platforms is operated via SWIFT’s standard messaging format ISO 20022.
Pakorn Peetathawatchai, SET’s President, commented: “The linkage enhances fully automated capabilities for cross-border investment fund distribution between Thailand and the world. As the first implementations of ISO 20022 in Thailand, FundConnext is committed to providing the world’s and Thailand’s investment communities with lower cost, ease of access and more efficient services.”
Bernard Tancré, Head of Investment Funds Services at Clearstream, commented: “Adding order routing, asset servicing and settlement services for Thai domestic investment funds to our portfolio perfectly fits our Asia funds strategy. The connection between Clearstream’s Vestima and SET’s FundConnext will enhance access to Thai and international funds for domestic and global market participants.”
Lisa O’Connor, Managing Director, Capital Markets and Standards, APAC, SWIFT, commented: “For more than ten years, ISO 20022 has been widely adopted as a standard for funds distribution and processing as it allows for interoperability, richer data and straight-through processing. We are delighted that Clearstream and The Stock Exchange of Thailand decided to leverage ISO 20022 and SWIFTNet capabilities to design their link and we strongly believe it will bring benefits to all their investors.”
Find here all fund markets connected to Clearstream: https://www.clearstream.com/clearstream-en/products-and-services/investment-funds-services/vestima/market-coverage