Thailand relaxes FX rules to rein in baht strength

[Isaan sailor]

They can tweak all they want, but until the Baht hits 10-year average exchange rates, the economy will continue to burn.

[racket]

4 hours ago, PETERTHEEATER said:

Thai commercial banks don't make the rules the Bank of Thailand does. Up until this amendment non-Thais without a work permit could transfer money from their Thai bank account via Outward Remittance application for a maximum amount daily set by the BoT. One reason that I have kept my FTT monthly pensions in an FCA account so that I can send it back home in the same currency without exchange rate penaltiy.

Never heard of it, but it's still a regulatory burden for those who don't have a work permit that have money stuck in Thailand. I suggest they should remove this restriction altogether.

[Monomial]

16 minutes ago, racket said:

Never heard of it, but it's still a regulatory burden for those who don't have a work permit that have money stuck in Thailand. I suggest they should remove this restriction altogether.

 

Maybe I am not reading this right, but it sounds like as of tomorrow all those rules are completely gone. Am I missing something? I mean, this is pretty self explanatory:

 

Outward transfers, which are currently allowed based on a positive list of specific purposes, will now be allowed freely except for a few specific purposes (negative list), such as for settlement of FX/THB transactions with financial institutions abroad.

 

That means all those rules they had before to prevent people from sending abroad have now been repealed. That should mean any work permit restrictions are now removed. There is no longer anything to prevent anyone from transferring up to $200,000 abroad. You just need to state the purpose for money laundering rules.

 

This is huge.

 

[saengd]

42 minutes ago, Monomial said:

 

Maybe I am not reading this right, but it sounds like as of tomorrow all those rules are completely gone. Am I missing something? I mean, this is pretty self explanatory:

 

Outward transfers, which are currently allowed based on a positive list of specific purposes, will now be allowed freely except for a few specific purposes (negative list), such as for settlement of FX/THB transactions with financial institutions abroad.

 

That means all those rules they had before to prevent people from sending abroad have now been repealed. That should mean any work permit restrictions are now removed. There is no longer anything to prevent anyone from transferring up to $200,000 abroad. You just need to state the purpose for money laundering rules.

 

This is huge.

 

You are not reading it correctly, it doesn't say those things.

[DrTuner]

"Alright fellas, the gates are open now, get your stuff out before it all collapses"

[Monomial]

3 hours ago, saengd said:

You are not reading it correctly, it doesn't say those things.

What does the following quote mean then?

 

Quote

 

Outward transfers, which are currently allowed based on a positive list of specific purposes, will now be allowed freely except for a few specific purposes (negative list), such as for settlement of FX/THB transactions with financial institutions abroad.

 

 

 

[watgate]

There was an article in the Bangkok paper several days ago which stated that the mega rich Thai consortium named Central has invested more then 20 BILLION thai baht in real estate ventures oversea. Specifically Central, who is the owner of all the Central malls such as Central festival, Airport Central, as well as all the central dept stores,  is currently building a 15 Billion baht high end shopping plaza as well as a luxurious hotel in the middle of Vienna Austria in some of the most  prime real estate in Austria. Central Consortium also has projects in Italy as well Germany totaling more then 5 Billion baht. So you see with the strength of the baht the incredibly wealthy Thai companies are benefiting handsomely as they continue to build on their massive wealth by expanding to  other countries and reaping the vast profits from their development projects. 

[saengd]

9 hours ago, Monomial said:

What does the following quote mean then?

 

Outward transfers, which are currently allowed based on a positive list of specific purposes, will now be allowed freely except for a few specific purposes (negative list), such as for settlement of FX/THB transactions with financial institutions abroad.

 

 

There has always been a positive and negative list of reasons, we'd need to see what the positive list of reason comprises. If this was a carte blanche change the wording might be, "outward transfers are currently allowed except for the following negative reasons" (or similar), it doesn't! Hitherto, Thai citizens were allowed to transfer funds overseas, based on a positive list of reasons, a short list I might add!

 

There is no mention of repatriation of funds, that is likely to be viewed quite differently.

 

There is no mention or indication this change refers to non-Thai's as well as Thai citizens or residents vs non-residents.

 

This is the page to watch, when it gets updated: https://www.bot.or.th/English/FinancialMarkets/ForeignExchangeRegulations/FXRegulation/Pages/default.aspx

Edited November 7, 2019 by saengd

[saengd]

8 hours ago, watgate said:

There was an article in the Bangkok paper several days ago which stated that the mega rich Thai consortium named Central has invested more then 20 BILLION thai baht in real estate ventures oversea. Specifically Central, who is the owner of all the Central malls such as Central festival, Airport Central, as well as all the central dept stores,  is currently building a 15 Billion baht high end shopping plaza as well as a luxurious hotel in the middle of Vienna Austria in some of the most  prime real estate in Austria. Central Consortium also has projects in Italy as well Germany totaling more then 5 Billion baht. So you see with the strength of the baht the incredibly wealthy Thai companies are benefiting handsomely as they continue to build on their massive wealth by expanding to  other countries and reaping the vast profits from their development projects. 

This really is exactly the same behaviour we would expect to see from any successful conglomerate in any country when their home currency is strong and should not be a surprise to anyone, Tesco (UK), Marks and Spencer (UK), Walmart (US), Home Depot (US), Costco, Walgreens, Aldi, etc etc.

[mikebell]

A token gesture that only benefits the already affluent.  Nothing for the farmer.

[DrTuner]

8 hours ago, saengd said:

There has always been a positive and negative list of reasons, we'd need to see what the positive list of reason comprises.

I remember in Kasikorn's remittance it was paying for school fees abroad, remitting money earned in Thailand to outside (required work permit) and returning investment proceeds (like selling a house, you needed the original inward remittance to prove the original funds came from abroad). That was in the form they might still have in their web bank. 

 

EDIT: Found it, check the checkboxes at the end: https://kasikornbank.com/th/Download/Level4_doc/GlobalOutward_EN_v1-0_2016.pdf

Edited November 8, 2019 by DrTuner

[Monomial]

So has there been any update to this since this directive was announced? Have they actually abandoned the positive list and allowed free outward transfers, or are they still restricting outward transfers to a small list of approved reasons?

 

Has anyone tried recently and what was the result?