The ASEAN Disclosure Standards Scheme is one of the capital market initiatives undertaken by the ASEAN Capital Markets Forum (ACMF) under its regional capital market integration plan (Implementation Plan) endorsed by the ASEAN Finance Ministers in April 2009 in Pattaya, Thailand. The Implementation Plan was developed to promote the development of an integrated market to achieve the goals of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) Blueprint 2015 to form an integrated ASEAN market by 2015.

This Scheme aims to facilitate cross-border offerings of securities within the ASEAN region by harmonizing disclosure requirements and support fund-raising activity. It will also benefit ASEAN and non-ASEAN issuers who make multi-jurisdiction offerings of equity and plain debt securities within ASEAN by increasing efficiency and reducing costs. Under this Scheme, when an issuer wishes to make a multi-jurisdiction offer of securities, the issuer needs to provide only a single set of disclosure documents that comply with the ASEAN Disclosure Standards to investors in each jurisdiction.

The Scheme also bring ease and cost savings to all issuers who make multi-jurisdiction offerings of plain equity and debt securities that require the registration of prospectuses or registration statements within ASEAN. Under the framework, issuers will be required to comply with a set of common disclosure standards, known as the ASEAN Disclosure Standards which are based on standards on cross-border offerings set by the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO).

Further details of the ASEAN Disclosure Standards Scheme and Implementation Plan are available on the ACMF website at www.theacmf.org. Interested to invest in Thailand, contact MSNA for your business needs.