BOT to standardise 19 financial service charges under new rules
The Bank of Thailand says the new rules are aimed at reducing costs for the public and SMEs while making charges more transparent and fair.
- The Bank of Thailand (BOT) will enforce new rules starting July 1, 2026, to standardize 19 financial service charges to make them fairer and more transparent for the public and SMEs.
- The standardized charges fall into four main categories: deposit account fees, electronic card charges, payment transaction fees, and SME lending-related charges.
- The primary goal is to ensure fees reflect the actual cost of services, which have often decreased due to technology, and to reduce wide variations in charges between different institutions.
- Financial institutions are prohibited from creating new fees or raising interest rates to compensate for the reduced income, unless a significant increase in operating costs is proven.
The Bank of Thailand (BOT) is beginning to enforce measures to set service-charge standards and gradually reduce fees on several financial products from Wednesday (July 1, 2026) onwards, to ease expenses for the public and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), while raising standards for how financial institutions calculate service charges so they are more transparent, fair and more closely reflect actual costs.
Vitai Ratanakorn, Governor of the Bank of Thailand, said the new rules covered four categories of fees, comprising 19 items in total.
The aim is to standardise charges levied by commercial banks and credit card business operators, reduce disparities in fee collection and give the public greater access to financial services at appropriate costs.
BOT said its monitoring had found that some fees still did not correspond with the actual cost of providing services, especially services whose costs had fallen or had almost disappeared because of technological development, but for which fees were still charged at previous rates.
Charges also varied quite widely between financial institutions, making it necessary to set central standards to ensure fairness for service users.
The fee-reduction measures are divided into four main groups:
- Deposit account-related charges, such as statement request fees (Statement), fees for financial status certificates and maintenance fees for inactive deposit accounts (Dormant Account)
- Electronic card-related charges, such as entry fees and annual fees for basic ATM cards and basic debit cards, as well as fees for cash withdrawals by credit card
- Payment transaction-related charges, such as fees for deposits, withdrawals and inter-regional money transfers, BAHTNET fees, cheque deposit fees, fees for receiving payments for goods and services, Bulk Payment fees and exchange-rate compensation fees
- SME lending-related charges, such as loan utilisation fees (Front-end Fee), credit line renewal fees, fees for extending the period for drawing down credit facilities, early loan repayment fees and credit line cancellation fees
In addition, BOT has required financial institutions and credit card service providers not to impose new service charges, add other forms of fees or raise interest rates to compensate for lower income resulting from fee reductions under these rules, except where there is a provable necessity, such as a significant increase in operating costs, the end of a promotion or a change in customer risk.
If providers are unable to adjust their systems in line with the rules within the specified timeframe, they must refund to customers any excess amount collected from the date the rules take effect, and prepare an implementation plan to complete the changes within the timeframe set by BOT.
The rules are under Bank of Thailand Notification No. 23/2026 on the standardisation of service charges and services.
The measures will gradually take effect from Wednesday (July 1, 2026) through October 2026, to allow financial institutions to improve their systems and operations so they fully comply with the new requirements.
