Asia Financial Services

The expansion and development of Thailand’s bond market continued in 2012 with an increased variety of sovereign debt instruments and longer maturities. The government’s plans for 2012 will further boost supply, and a wider range of sub-sovereign and commercial bonds are also expected to hit the market. That puts Thailand at the head of a regional...

With the introduction of oil futures, the growing market for derivatives in Thailand took another step in October 2011. If the new option proves as popular as the previous year’s addition, gold futures, the Thailand Futures Exchange (TFEX) will see another big jump in trading activity in 2012.

One of the wildest of wild cards in 2012 has been the question of brokerage reform in Thailand. A plan under implementation early in 2012 to deregulate broker commissions became uncertain after Finance Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong said the plans to liberalise the sector should be reversed. As of August 2012, it appears that liberalisation has been...

Thailand’s roster of banks and financial services companies include the universal banking model, but even among larger lenders differentiation by specialty and focus is pronounced. Among that roster, the following five stand out as the largest and most closely watched: