The Thailand Securities Depository (TSD) moves on with its e-Dividend: Phase II by joining forces with 8 leading commercial banks in serving shareholders who have accounts at the participating banks.
The group's aim is to provide full e-service to their clienteles.
TSD President Ms. Nongram Wongwanich said, "The introduction of the e-Dividend project at the beginning of this year has been another success for shareholders and TSD. e-Dividends provided greater convenience for shareholders, who received their dividends quickly, through payment directly into their bank accounts during the past pay-out season. Cooperation between the TSD and local banks enabled the number of shareholders receiving their dividends through this service to more than double, compared with early this year. The TSD has also undergone several adjustments to perfect the scheme, leading to e-Dividend: Phase II.
In this follow-up campaign, the TSD signed MoUs with leading local banks whereby they will invite their customers who are also shareholders of listed firms to join the e-Dividend program. The campaign has been well-received. 8 banks are currently involved, i.e., Bangkok Bank, Krungthai Bank, Bank of Ayudhya, Kasikornbank, Thai Military Bank, Bankthai, Siam Commercial Bank and Siam City Bank.
"In this project, shareholders will be contacted by their bank, and if they are interested in e-Dividend services, they will only have to inform their bank of their intention and proceed through each bank's procedures. Each bank will then send information to TSD to enable dividends to be deposited directly into the shareholders' designated accounts when the pay-out is made by each company. If shareholders have accounts at more than one bank, they can choose which account to be used for this project. If a shareholder selects more than one bank to receive the person's dividends, TSD will randomly select only one bank for each shareholder," said Mrs. Nongram.
e-Dividend benefits every party, especially shareholders, who will receive their dividends faster than ever, without the hassle of cashing their cheques at banks or even losing the cheques. The system also helps lower the possibility that cheques never reach their recipients. Listed companies will benefit from the zero cost of cheque printing, as well as from other related work.
Currently, about 300,000 shareholders have registered for e-Dividends, which is 53% of all shareholders. They own shares of 384 participating companies, accounting for about 70% of all listed firms, or 72% of companies that pay dividends.
Related documents will be sent to shareholders during September-October, 2005. Therefore the service will be ready for the shareholders starting from the next dividend payout period, which usually falls between March and May.