THAILAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Wongsakrit Khajangson, Panupan Udomsuvannakul, Koraphot Jirachocksubsin and Pitchaya Roongroajsataporn, Chandler Mori Hamada
Chandler Mori Hamada 17th and 36th Floors Sathorn Square Office Tower 98 North Sathorn Road
Silom, Bangrak Bangkok 10500 Thailand
Tel: +66 2 009 5000 Fax: +66 2 009 5080 Email: business-development@morihamada.com Web: www.chandler.morihamada.com
1. Fintech Market 1.1 Evolution of the Fintech Market Thailand is a pioneer in ASEAN in the adoption of 5G technology to improve and expand the country’s capacity for deep technology, such as blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI), big data, robotics, cloud computing and machine learn - ing. As a result of the proactive development of its information and communications technology (ICT) facilities and the regulatory environment, Thailand is one of the fastest-growing fintech markets in ASEAN and currently has one of the world’s largest consumer bases for fintech mobile banking. According to the latest data from the Bank of Thailand (BOT), published as of the date of this article (January 2025), the volume of e-payments in Thailand has consistently been increasing. Internet and mobile banking are the most popu - lar e-payment channels, with approximately 144.3 million accounts and more than 6.28 bil - lion transfers and payment transactions until October 2024.
Developing Accessibility The Thai government has been promoting fin - tech by developing accessibility to government platforms. The BOT has collaborated with glob - al card network service providers to create the “Thai QR Code” , which facilitates payments via debit cards, credit cards, e-wallets and e-pay - ments through bank accounts using the Thai QR Code as an intermediary. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, Thai peo - ple have become more familiar with contactless payment systems. Therefore, electronic trans - actions have become increasingly common in Thailand. In addition, the BOT, together with the central banks of four other ASEAN countries (Indone - sia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore), has signed a memorandum of understanding to expand the fast cross-border payments, known as Project Nexus, which aims to standardise connections between domestic instant payment systems (IPS) to enable cross-border payments within 60 seconds.
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