Thailand’s top regulators going full bore on capital market reform

Thailand faces two serious challenges that are an impediment to growth the country’s small to medium-sized companies are struggling to raise finance, and the very strong currency is hurting exports.

In a bid to overcome these two issues, the country’s top regulators the Bank of Thailand BoT and the Securities Exchange Commission SEC are adopting reforms that offer greater freedoms for the country’s investor class.

The BoT first. As of the time of writing, the baht had reached its strongest level against the dollar since 2013. It is important to stress how negative this is for Thailand’s trade competitiveness every 1% the baht strengthens, export...