Association chairman Kampanart Lohacharoenvanich said the securities watchdog did not plan to block the extension but wanted additional information, because the reason given by the association - that brokers with a market share of less than 2 per cent would lose following liberalisation of brokering fees - "does not make enough sense".

In May, the board of governors of the Stock Exchange of Thailand  (SET) approved extension of the minimum brokering fee of 0.25 per cent of a transaction's value for traditional trading and 0.2 per cent for Internet trading for another three years from next January.

However, the stock exchange requires each broker to have at least four fundamental analysts as a condition for the extension.

Under Kittiratt Na Ranong's leadership, the SET in

2002 implemented the

minimum 0.25-per-cent brokering fee after brokerage houses suffered losses because of full deregulation of the fee, which consequently led to a price-cutting war.

Siriporn Chanjindamanee

The Nation