The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) plans to push cross-border sales of real estate investment trusts (REITs), infrastructure funds, medium-term funds and stocks in Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia.
"We need to connect more of the capital market products of these three countries in the next one to two years," said SEC secretary-general Rapee Sucharitakul.
"These products include REITs, infrastructure funds and medium-term funds. We will be able to adjust the rules and regulations [in these three countries] to have common standards next year."
The stock regulators of Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore are working to link Asean capital markets to facilitate companies using cross-border fund mobilisation and encourage intermediaries and investors selling and investing in cross-border products, he said.
The cooperation is called Asean's Collective Investment Scheme (CIS) for cross-border sales of mutual fund products.
Some 10 mutual funds are sold cross-border in the three countries. Two of them are Thai funds.
The Asean CIS Framework is one of the initiatives undertaken by the Asean Capital Markets Forum as part of a regional capital market integration plan.
Mr Rapee said securities regulators of the three countries plan to offer fast-track registration for cross-border mutual funds next year, and each fund is required to sign up with the host country's regulator.
To further connectivity, enhanced corporate governance (CG) scorecard standards are expected to become more common in the three countries, he said.
Thai companies have received outstanding marks on the Asean CG scorecard, with 23 Thai firms in the top 50 rankings, said Mr Rapee.
After the Asian financial crisis, Thai companies have paid more attention to CG, he said.
In related news, Pakorn Peetathawatchai, senior executive vice-president of the Stock Exchange of Thailand, said an increasing number of listed Thai companies have caught foreign investors' attention.
Some 34 Thai firms are listed in the MSCI indices, an increase from 17 in 2011, said Mr Pakorn.