“The readiness of listed companies to comply with the rules will greatly depend upon how well they understand the rules’ objectives, how they are being monitored for compliance and what actions will be taken when violations of said rules occur,” Mr. Suthichai said.
He continued, “Before issuing the rules, the SET has instituted a hearing process which included listed companies and other related parties. Furthermore, later this year, there’ll be a ’Training and Networking for Contact Persons’ program to help educate listed firms’ contact persons.
“To supervise listed companies, currently the SET has measures ranging from mere warnings to delistings. This includes posting NP, H, or SP signs on any violator’s securities, sending letters to companies to warn or accuse them or eventually delisting them.
“In order to improve our supervisory efficiency, the SET will add another measure – the public reprimand, which is considered a moderate-level measure. The public reprimand measure will come into effect from June 1, 2005, onwards.
“Criticizing any offending companies publicly will provide investors, as well as the general public, with an additional source of information. The SET will employ all our information dissemination channels, e.g., SETSMART and SET’s website. This public reprimand measure has actually already been used in neighboring countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, and Hong Kong,” concluded Mr. Suthichai.
In order to make the public reprimand measure transparent and unbiased, the SET Board of Governors has appointed the SET’s executive committee, whose members include distinguished independent persons, to announce such news. Furthermore, the committee has invited representatives from the listed companies association to join in its hearings and discussions.
