Confusing email from SCB. What does it mean?

[DurianManThailand]

The Bank would like to review such notification to be as follows:

To uplift financial transaction security, the Bank has discontinued your waiver of identity verification by using face recognition via SCB EASY App. Please use the following alternative channels as follows:

1. Funds transfer or top up to other person's account or to other bank's account from 50,000 Baht per transaction or each of total 200,000 Baht per day can be made via SCB branch or ATM.
2. Increase funds transfer or top up limit from 50,000 Baht per day, please contact SCB Call Center 02-777-7777.
3. Install SCB EASY App on new device or existing device, please contact SCB Call Center 02-777-7777.

Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause. If you have any inquiry, please contact SCB Call Center 02-777-7777.

[Mattd]

It means exactly what it says, SCB removed the waiver for facial recognition that was in place for foreign ban account holders, mine was removed on 16th June (it seems they staggered dates, so others were earlier and other later).

 

As of the date they say, you will no longer be able to make a transaction over over 50,000 THB using SCB Easy.

 

If you have to make such a transaction, you must call them and ask permission, once granted you have one hour to make the transaction, a call has to be made for every single transaction over 50,000 THB.

 

It is possible to transfer funds up to 49,900 THB to the same person, to a maximum of 200,000 THB per day, essentially 4 transactions.

 

Email received from SCB by another customer:

 

Firstly, we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused and for the delay in our response.
Regarding your email, SCB has canceled the facial recognition waiver in order to comply with regulations set by the Bank of Thailand.
At present, our system does not yet support facial recognition for foreign customers. 
Once facial verification becomes available for foreign customers, we will make an official announcement and invite foreign clients to complete identity verification at SCB branch again.

You may continue using the app as usual without visiting an SCB branch for facial recognition, as long as your transfers do not exceed the following limits:
- Up to 50,000 THB per transaction, or
- A total of 200,000 THB in transfers per day

For transactions exceeding these limits, please be advised of the following:
If you require a temporary bypass for facial recognition, you may:
- Contact the SCB Call Center at 02-777-7777 (press 9 for English), provided that you hold an active SCB debit card with PIN verification.
- If you do not have a debit card, please visit your nearest SCB branch with your passport and bank passbook to request the exemption.

Please note: The temporary bypass is valid for one (1) hour and will be automatically canceled thereafter. However, you may request this exemption as often as needed.

Alternatively, you may also complete your transactions through other available channels, such as ATMs, CDMs, VTMs, or by visiting any SCB branch at your convenience.

We sincerely appreciate your trust in SCB to assist you. If you have any further inquiry, please do not hesitate to contact the SCB Customer Service Center via email at customer_service[at]scb.co.th, available 24 hours a day.

"Please take care of your health during this period of frequent weather changes."

Yours sincerely,
SCB Customer Center

[JackGats]

Why does the system not work with foreign faces? This must be because we have weird facial features compared to the Thais.

[Crossy]

Just now, JackGats said:

Why does the system not work with foreign faces? This must be because we have weird facial features compared to the Thais.

 

No idea, it works (reasonably) well for Bangkok Bank.

 

Actually, I believe it's more to do with not being able to handle the various formats of passport numbers.

 

[Mattd]

2 minutes ago, Crossy said:

 

No idea, it works (reasonably) well for Bangkok Bank.

 

Actually, I believe it's more to do with not being able to handle the various formats of passport numbers.

 

From what I understand it is how the banks interpretate the BOT rules, they say that the facial recognition side is something to do with the CHIP system used together with the Thai ID card.

 

BBL etc. seem to have a different take on the rules.

 

To be honest, I don't see why SCB can't ask the account holder to come to the bank with positive photo ID (passport registered to the account) and then take a photo to store in a database, which I imagine is how BBL did it?

[ukrules]

They do facial recognition on my ABA account in Cambodia and it works perfectly well.

Can't you pop down to the local branch and get them to set it up for you like all the Thais?

[Mattd]

4 minutes ago, ukrules said:

They do facial recognition on my ABA account in Cambodia and it works perfectly well.

Can't you pop down to the local branch and get them to set it up for you like all the Thais?

No, this question was asked of SCB and as posted earlier, they say it is to do with the system Thailand uses for their citizens, basically, the facial recognition for a Thai is done through a database connected with the ID card system.

 

Now, why they can't just have a separate database for their foreign customers I've no idea!

[Photoguy21]

Banks do not usually send emails unless it is just general information. This doesn't have much info in it and it is for information. All the same I would check with the bank. If it is not actually from the bank the action of opening it could have undesirable consequences.

[MarkT63]

I got something similar and went in to my SCB branch on Phuket last week to try to sort.

No mention of facial recognition. Bank assistant just said the bank was restricting foreigner transactions to max 50,000 baht per time. Anything more and you would have to call the bank to arrange.

When I said that was not very customer friendly she just shrugged and said new bank policy.

[topt]

3 hours ago, Photoguy21 said:

Banks do not usually send emails unless it is just general information. This doesn't have much info in it and it is for information. All the same I would check with the bank. If it is not actually from the bank the action of opening it could have undesirable consequences.

Another thread already running -

 

[ronnie50]

I guess we can still make a large bill payment (over 50k) in one go? I looked at 'terms and conditions' and it still says up to 2 million.

 

Also to clarify, the 'facial recognition' was for transfering to someone else's bank account (not a bill, etc.), higher than 50k right? Not just to log in to the app?