The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reiterated that expediting the investigation process concerning offences relating to the SEC Act is the regulator's priority to ensure fairness and protect investors' interests, while the measures to enhance the supervision of short-selling have reduced daily short-selling trading by almost 70%.
Deputy secretary-general Anek Yooyuen said on Tuesday the SEC has focused on law enforcement, with around 440 million baht in fines having been imposed for offenders within the first seven months of 2024, compared to 105 million baht in the whole of 2023.
This is the result of the SEC speeding up the investigation process with investigation results concerning more cases of wrongdoing to be announced for the rest of the year, he said.
There were 10 cases forwarded to the Department of Investigation (DSI), with six cases of indictments consisting of two stock manipulation cases and four corruption cases.
In addition, there were 10 civil penalties, comprising eight stock manipulation cases and two insider trading cases, with total fines of 440 million baht.
The regulator has proposed amending the law, with the aim of increasing the efficiency of law enforcement.
The draft amendment is under consideration by the Office of the Council of State, Mr Anek noted.
In high-impact cases, the SEC would step up cooperation with related agencies such as the DSI and the Office of the Attorney General for further investigation, he added.
Secretary-general Pornanong Budsaratragoon said the measures to enhance market supervision of short-selling trading by using the uptick rule starting from July 1 resulted in short-selling trading volume dropping by 68%, while program trading decreased by 27.3%.
As a result of stricter supervision, the daily trading value, which amounted to 45.2 billion baht in the first half of the year, decreased to 37.2 billion baht in July, she said.
"After the implementation of the short selling and uptick rule measures, those involved in the stock market are satisfied. We believe that in the long term, when the market is stable, investors' confidence will increase and so will stock investments," said Mrs Pornanong.
She said the SEC is preparing to announce the criteria of the new Thai ESG Fund after the cabinet on Tuesday endorsed the new fund which allows individual purchasers to deduct as much as 300,000 baht from personal income tax with a holding period of five years.
The waiver was increased from 100,000 baht allowed in the original ESG Fund, while the qualification period was reduced from eight years.
As of April 2024, there were 95,000 unitholders in the Thai ESG fund, with total assets under management of almost 7 billion baht.
Mrs Pornanong said the establishment of the Thai ESG fund resulted in a nearly 40% rise in the disclosure of greenhouse gas data by listed and non-listed firms, which is an accelerator for companies to adjust their ESG plans, including greenhouse gas reduction.
The Association of Investment Management Companies stated that there will be 30-40 billion baht in new money flowing into the Thai ESG equity fund.