BAY offers alternative to card readers

The customers of these merchants have to pay in cash.
BAY’s mobile payment system comprises a dongle (computer plug-in device) with a slot for inserting a credit or debit card. It can be connected with mobile devices to allow wireless payments for merchants’ customers.
The cheaper option is part of the bank’s strategy to boost its business with small and medium-sized enterprises.
BAY estimates that online commerce via credit and debit cards, including mobile-phone-based spending on products and services, will surge to Bt207 billion by 2015.
BAY is the first commercial |bank in Thailand to make the dongle available for smart phones or tablets.
Thakorn Piyapan, managing director of Krungsri Consumer (Ayudhya Capital Services), the plastic-card unit, said yesterday that the bank would target individual vendors in the Chatuchak Weekend Market or in wholesale outlets because very small businesses don’t want to buy or lease an electronic data-capture (EDC) terminal from financial houses.
The new card-acceptance device will persuade the vendors to use the e-payment service instead of only cash because the dongle is priced around Bt3,000, much lower than Bt10,000 for an EDC device.
The bank hopes the new technology will help support its business plan to find small vendors that can upgrade to SMEs.
“Before providing the dongle, we’ll analysis the transaction volume of each merchant to control risk and ensure safe payments. The transaction volume of small vendors will show which ones should become SME customers in the future,” Thakorn said.
The bank will aggressively promote the device to small vendors early next year to increase card spending and fee income, he added.
BAY yesterday launched a pilot project with AIA Thailand because the insurer has a co-branded credit card with the bank. About 250 of AIA’s 70,000 sales agents will use the dongle as a point of sales for policyholders who prefer paying premiums with credit or debit cards, said Philip Tan, head of e-business for BAY.
The device will help reduce the amount of cash that agents have to bring with them.
Thakorn said the bank could expand its co-branded credit cards by offering incentives to AIA agents who can refer Krungsri credit cards to the bank.
There are only 500,000 Krungsri AIA credit cards, while AIA has 5 million policyholders, so the new technology can help support cross-selling, he said.