Thai digital payments double in Feb as outbreak spurs online activity

FILE PHOTO: A closed bar is seen on Friday afternoon as the country struggles with a third wave of infections of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Sukhumvit road, in Bangkok, Thailand April 23, 2021. REUTERS/Jorge Silva

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand's digital payments more than doubled in February from a year earlier, the central bank said on Thursday, as the coronavirus pandemic pushes up demand for online services.

Thailand has since December experienced two waves of coronavirus infections, with broad restrictions imposed to try to contain them.

Its latest outbreak has seen its COVID-19 fatalities triple and cases more than double since early April.

The number of transactions made via the PromptPay platform averaged 22.3 million per day in February, up from 10.6 million per day in the same month in 2020, the Bank of Thailand (BOT) said.

The highest daily transactions were 27.1 million, it said.

The BOT is seeking cross-border QR (Quick Response) payments and cross-border real-time fund transfers with more countries after a recent linkage of real-time payment systems with Singapore, Assistant Governor Siritida Panomwon Na Ayudhya told a briefing.

The central bank is in talks with Malaysia and Indonesia for cross-border QR payments, she said.

Thailand currently has QR payments arrangements with Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Singapore and Japan, Siritida said.