The Stock Exchange of Thailand's executive team underwent a reshuffle yesterday when its board of governors decided to move executive vice president Suthichai Chitvanich from the market regulation division to the corporate governance and investment relations division.

The appointment will take effect on Sunday. SET president Patareeya Benchapolchai told a press briefing that the reshuffle was part of organisational restructuring in line with the stock exchange's three-year strategic plan, which starts from next year.

"Corporate governance is an issue we would like to make come true because surveillance would not be needed so much if listed companies and the SET's members follow corporate governance practices.

"I would like to confirm that the reshuffle is not a result of excessively stringent investigation into stock speculation," she said.

The SET is now looking for someone to take over the vacant post, Patareeya said.

Supakit Jirapraditkul and Sakkarin Ruamrangsri, senior vice presidents for market regulation, will report directly to her in the interim.

"I believe the working of the department remains tight because we have a strong system and strong workforce in charge of tasks," she said.

Suthichai's transfer is the second revamp of the SET's high-ranking executives under Patareeya's reign, which began this year.

Previously the board shifted Sopawadee Lertmanaschai from executive vice president of the SET to president of the Thailand Securities Depository.

Nongram Wongwanich, in turn, became executive vice president in charge of the corporate operations division. Patareeya said Suthichai would be in charge of internal audit and risk management, as well as acting as the secretary of the board of directors.

"I understand that the new division will play an important role. Despite the revamp, the working process of the market regulation division will remain unchanged," Suthichai said.

Under Suthichai's leadership, the market regulation division launched numerous investigations into stocks trading with irregular movements, including probes of International Engineering Plc and Agripure Holdings Plc.

The exchange's board also allowed local and foreign institutional investors to place direct trading orders starting from around the first quarter of next year.

Institutional investors will connect their systems to their brokerage firms and send orders by the direct market access system (DMA) to the bourse, the stock exchange said in a statement yesterday.

The DMA will facilitate trading, expand the investor base and reduce errors from sending orders via brokerage traders.

Brokerages must have risk management systems and auto-checking systems in place before allowing their clients to access the DMA.

The DMA system is already in use in Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Japan.

Siriporn Chanjindamanee

The Nation