The Bank of Thailand (BoT) plans to launch cross-border QR code payments between Thailand and India this year, with future ambitions to widen this system into a multi-country payment network across Asia.

 

Daranee Saeju, Assistant Governor for Payment Systems Policy and Financial Consumer Protection Group at the BoT, confirmed that the partnership with India is set to start in the third quarter of this year. This development results from collaborations with nations beyond the ASEAN group.

 

QR code cross-border payments have already been established with several countries, like Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, and Japan, using Thailand's national digital payment platform, PromptPay, which started in 2016.

 

Singapore's connection, for instance, includes both QR code payments and money transfer services. Daranee noted that the future plan involves incorporating money transfers across different regions via multi-country connections, enhancing the efficiency of payment systems beyond the current setup of agreements between two countries.

 

The initiative to transfer money across borders, which was initially launched with Singapore, is expected to expand to other regional countries, Daranee said.

 

She also predicted that PromptPay could set a new transaction record this year, following its record-setting performance in 2023. PromptPay transactions have increased steadily since the platform's launch in 2016, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

"Since PromptPay was introduced, cash transactions have decreased to around 66% of total bank transactions."

 

As of now, PromptPay has 77.6 million users. It saw a record 75.9 million financial transactions per day in December last year. On a daily basis, around 54.5 million money transfers were made through PromptPay last year, totaling 130 billion baht, according to the Bank of Thailand's Payment Insight report as reported by the Bangkok Post.

 

 

-- 2024-04-29

Get our Daily Newsletter - Click HERE to subscribe

Rumour is that the Thai launch location for the cross border QR payments by Indians will be at the Coconut Bar on beach road in Pattaya. Only in the nights after dark. No discounts or haggling allowed though.

 

Edited April 29, 20242 yr by soi3eddie

Each time they announce one of these new cross-border agreements, I read the details and it turns out that only a few Thai banks are participating, and that my bank (Kasikorn) isn't one of them. I hope this changes in the future.

Wait a minute. Can I already pay across the border in, let's say Malaysia, using my Thai account, by scanning their QR codes?

Very good news. More Indians money will come to Thailand.