Six companies given green light to access to relaxing forex transaction system

BANGKOK, June 1 (TNA) - The Bank of Thailand (BOT) has given the green light to six private business firms in the country to conduct foreign exchange transactions with commercial banks with no requirement of any document as a legal reference. BOT Governor Veerathai Santiprabhob told journalists of the update on May 31, saying that the six private firms include Thai Airways International Public Company Limited (THAI), NMB-Minebea Thai Co.,Ltd., Covestro (Thailand) Co., Ltd., LG Electronics (Thailand) Co.,Ltd., Star Petroleum Refining Public Company Limited and Mitr Phol Sugar Corporation. "The six private firms are allowed to conduct foreign exchange transactions with commercial banks without any requirement to show such documents and invoices or lending contracts as a legal reference in order to lessen time consuming, procedures and costs", the BOT governor confirmed. The BOT governor stated that the central bank has also extended the application period for other private firms to join the fast track move for another six months, or until November 16, 2018, and has relaxed conditions for them to join the move, from each having the total value of foreign exchange transactions for international trade and investment over the past three years at the minimum of 3 billion US dollars to at the minimum of 1.5 billion US dollars. According to the BOT chief, the Thai central bank is, meanwhile, launching the second-phase reform on rules and regulations in the second half of this year for the sake of more efficiency in the management of foreign exchange system, emphasizing on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and individuals, including a cut in required documents and procedures, the relaxing measures of which will also be adopted to promote and support expanding digital or electronic services of financial institutes in the country. The BOT governor assessed that the reform should be completed by late September and the reformed framework will then by submitted to the Thai Ministry of Finance for further consideration. (TNA)