Debit, ATM cards to be chip-based
STARTING from May 16, all newly issued ATM and debit cards in Thailand will be chip-based as opposed to magnetic-stripe cards, while the existing 60 million magnetic-stripe cards will be migrated to chip cards by the end of 2019.
If cardholders fail to change to the chip cards by that deadline, they will not be able to use their cards for any transactions at automated teller machines or for electronic data capture, the Bank of Thailand’s deputy governor for financial-institutions stability, Tongurai Limpiti, said yesterday.
More than 40 million of the total 60 million magnetic-stripe cards are debit cards, with the remainder serving solely as ATM cards.
Several bankers believe the role of ATM cards will decline after the move to chip-based cards is implemented, as consumers will prefer debit cards because they can be used both at ATM machines and with merchants.
A debit card is similar to a credit card, but cardholders must have a savings account with a bank to qualify for one.
However, the use of debit cards in Thailand is not as widespread as for credit cards, because many people are not confident they are fully secure and some merchants still do not accept debit cards.
That said, the national e-payment system and the arrival of chip-based cards will ease the concerns of both users and traders, Tongurai said.
Thailand will be the third country in Asean to implement chip-based debit and ATM cards, after Singapore and Malaysia, said Predee Daochai, chairman of the Thai Bankers’ Association (TBA) and president of Kasikornbank.
Malaysia started using chip-based cards in 2004, and Singapore implemented such a system in 2011.
TBA members have allocated more than Bt1 billion to adjust their back-office systems, card issuance and card-accepting systems to serve the upcoming chip-based era, he said.
The service fees for chip-based debit and ATM cards will be unchanged from those for magnetic-stripe cards, he added. At present, banks charge an entrance/card replacement fee of Bt100 for issuing a basic debit card, plus an annual fee of Bt200 per customer.
Predee said about 86 per cent of the 60,000 ATMs nationwide had already been upgraded to accept chip-based debit and ATM cards, with each bank gradually improving their machines to accept the cards by the end of this year.
