The Chairman of the SAA, Dr. Kongkiat Opaswongkarn, said that the SET has encouraged the securities companies to produce quality securities research reports. The SET has also urged that any company having their securities research reports distributed should have their analysts registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SAA is thus determined to improve the quality of the research reports distributed to the public.
In addition, the SAA has a plan to develop, over the longer term, the quality of Thai securities analysts to be in line with international standards. It will create an organization that will bring about more cooperation from analysts and encourage its members to play a greater role in contributing to society. The SAA will transfer the CISA (Certified Investment and Securities Analyst) program to the Thailand Securities Institute (TSI) to operate. The SAA will send representatives to help develop the CISA as well as other curricula to develop Thailand’s professional securities analysts.
“The transfer of the course will enable the SAA to better develop securities professionals and create a dedicated Thai analysts’ society. We believe TSI’s expertise and resources will fulfill its mission to develop the course curriculum, hold training and administer the certification exams at a level of quality that will be well-accepted by the capital market community and other concerned parties,” Dr. Kongkiat said.
The SET President, Mr. Kittiratt Na-Ranong, announced that today (Aug.24) the SET received the transfer of the CISA course from the SAA. The SET, via its subsidiary the TSI, will be responsible for the course’s training and certification exams from this August onwards. The TSI also plans to develop a course curriculum for securities analyst training so as to increase the quantity and the quality of Thailand’s securities analysts.
“The TSI will develop the course utilizing the previous framework that the SAA has laid down. There will a curriculum development committee, similar to the committees used with other courses the TSI has developed. Moreover, we will decrease the CISA program’s training and certification fees so as to provide a greater opportunity to participate to a wider range of people interested in a securities analyst career. We believe the CISA course will be attractive to people in other professions, as well as any executives who’d like to improve their capital market knowledge, as with our other programs,” Mr. Kittiratt said.
The TSI Director, Mrs. Jiraporn Koosuwan, reaffirmed the TSI’s capacity and readiness by saying that the Institute would hold more training courses and certification exams each year starting from January 2005. There will be 4 training and certification sessions a year for CISA’s 1st level (one every quarter), and two sessions a year for its 2nd and 3rd levels in order to help contribute sufficient human resources to the industry.
The CISA program was developed by the SAA in 1992 to be an intensive financial analysis course. Its structure and design was based on the internationally-accepted CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) designation of the CFA Institute (formerly the Association for Investment Management and Research, or AIMR). The CISA course includes subjects concerning ethical and professional standards, financial tools, asset valuation, and portfolio management. There are three levels to the course, similar to those found in the CFA’s course, plus a module in Thai regulations.
Currently the CISA program is domestically recognized as having equally high standards to those of the CFA program, and has been accepted throughout the securities industry including among fund managers. People who pass the 1st level CISA program can get certified from the SEC and are eligible to be registered as fund managers.
Interested persons in the training or certification programs, or individuals wishing to acquire more details about the CISA program can browse the TSI’s website, www.tsi-thailand.org, or call 0 2229 2120-2
