Banks move forward on cashless payment system
CASHLESS payments in Thailand are expected to rise to between 50 and 60 per cent of the total within five years from the current 30 per cent after banks invest in electronic data capture (EDC) and finalise a new structure for transactional fees.
Yos Kimsawatde, head of the Thai Bankers’ Association’s Payment System Office, said members of the TBA had agreed on the new fee structure, under which charges for digital banking will be significantly lower than in the past. Fund transfers via mobile banking currently cost Bt10 per transaction, for example, but the charge will be lower under the new structure, he said.
The new transaction-fee structure will be proposed to the Bank of Thailand for consideration and the central bank will finalise the details of the fees themselves, he added.
Fees for digital banking should be low because such transactions do not cost the banks as much as those at branches or automated teller machines, where currently the fees are low.
Yos said the TBA was complying with the government’s national e-payment programme, the first stage of which is AnyID. Central registration for that scheme will open on July 15, and people in the programme will be able to use their mobile-phone numbers or national ID numbers for payments to merchants on October 31.
Commercial banks will be in charge of the central registration for AnyID, which people will be able to do via ATMs, Internet banking, mobile banking and bank branches.
The second phase of the e-payment programme is EDC, and the big banks will form a consortium to oversee investment in that technology.
There are about 300,000 EDC units in Thailand but they only work with chip-based debit and ATM cards. After the shift to microchips from magnetic stripes becomes fully effective from May 15 onwards, the number of EDC units should grow quickly to 2 million nationwide.
The bank consortium will increase the number of EDC units by 600,000-700,000 this year, so the total will touch 1 million by the end of the year, Yos said.
The consortium is expected to announce the collaboration on EDC expansion by the end of this month or in early June.
To encourage cashless payments, the number of ATMs should be reduced to 30,000 nationwide from 70,000 currently, he said.
“Card acceptance must be in place in every province. Moreover, the government should motivate the use of debit cards and AnyID by offering incentives to both SMEs [small and medium-sized enterprises] and individuals,” he said.
