THAILAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Wongsakrit Khajangson, Panupan Udomsuvannakul, Koraphot Jirachocksubsin and Pitchaya Roongroajsataporn, Chandler Mori Hamada
to allow it to supervise industry participants. However, as regulators appear to encourage self-regulatory mechanisms in the fintech indus - try, the Thai Fintech Association may become a key organisation in establishing wider sector policies and standardisation. The Thai Fintech Association, the Thai Block - chain Association, the Thai Digital Asset Asso - ciation and the Thai Digital Trade Association were all established to support and be the voice of each respective ecosystem. 2.13 Conjunction of Unregulated and Regulated Products and Services Certain regulations restrict a licensee from providing business services other than those covered under the relevant licence held by the business operator or business services/activities related to the licensed business activity. Under the Payment Systems Act, business oper - ators licensed to engage in e-money services may not operate other businesses except those that such operators are licenced to perform or business activities that support e-money busi - ness services. 2.14 Impact of AML and Sanctions Rules The Anti-Money Laundering Act B.E. 2542 (1999) (the “AML Act” ) and the Counter-Financing of Terrorism and Dissemination of Weapons of Mass Destruction Act B.E. 2559 (2016) are the two pri - mary laws regulating anti-money laundering in Thailand. Fintech businesses may be required to comply with these two laws since they may deal with financial activities – ie, e-payment sys - tems, money exchanges or financial institutions (as prescribed under the AML Act (the “specified operators” )). If a particular fintech business is included in the scope of the Specified Opera - tors, such fintech operator is required to verify
its customers’ identities upon commencement of certain activities, conduct customer due dili - gence, and report any suspicious transactions to the relevant authority. As most fintech companies carry out their busi - nesses as specified operators, they must com - ply with the criteria specified under the law, as follows: • reporting transactions to the Anti-Money Laundering Office involving the use of cash or assets in an amount exceeding that pre - scribed in sub-regulations or any suspicious transactions; • identifying customers prior to making any transactions; • determining policies for customers, prevent - ing money laundering, risk management poli - cies and conducting due diligence on cus - tomers when making the first transaction; and • recording all facts relating to any transaction that has been made. The criteria under the AML Act result in more procedures and steps for effectuating each transaction, and fintech companies may have to establish a compliance department to com - ply with anti-money laundering criteria. Also, fin - tech companies may have to prepare systems for storing information on transactions and cus - tomer data and ensuring the security of such systems. 2.15 Financial Action Task Force Standards Thailand’s anti-money laundering and sanctions regulations generally conform to the standards established by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
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