Thai central bank plans business digital payment platform by April

Thailand’s central bank plans to launch a digital payment service for businesses by April next year, and aims to expand cross-border payments with some other countries, officials said on Thursday.

The PromptBiz platform will help businesses make and receive payments as well as send information, the officials told a media briefing.

The service follows the launch in 2018 of PromptPay, a payment platform for the public.

Budsakorn Teerapunyachai, senior director at the Bank of Thailand (BOT), said that PromptBiz could be a “game changer” in business payments if it mirrors the take up of PromptPay.

Accelerated by demand during the pandemic, the number of daily transactions made via the PromptPay platform currently averaged 36 million, up from 7 million in 2019, BOT data showed.

The BOT is planning cross-border remittances with Malaysia, India and Indonesia, alongside QR (Quick-Response) cross-border payments with India and Hong Kong, Budsakorn said.

The BOT is targeting a growth in the number of overall digital payments to 800 per person per year over the next three years, versus 370 currently, Assistant Governor Siritida Panomwon Na Ayudhya told the briefing.