The Bank of Thailand plans to upgrade the country's payment system standard to stabilise financial services and prevent digital banking glitches.
The central bank expects to implement the upgraded standard for payment systems in the fourth quarter of this year, said Siritida Panomwan Na Ayudhya, the central bank's assistant governor for payment systems policy and financial technology group.
She said the move would improve the banking industry's payment system and protect consumers from financial risk.
The standard should also help stabilise the payment system and prevent glitches with financial transactions, especially on digital platforms, said Ms Siritida.
The central bank will also study penalties for banks in the event of glitches, she said.
The Bank of Thailand has worked with banks and National ITMX Co Ltd, a digital payment infrastructure system developer, to set up a war room to monitor financial transactions and alert banks in the event of problems with the system.
Ms Siritida said the central bank is implementing the fourth phase of its payment directional paper spanning 2022-2024 to bolster the country's payment infrastructure, paving the way for a better digital payment system to drive the nation's digital economy.
In this phase, the central bank is developing PromptBiz, a digital payment infrastructure system for the business sector, expanding on the achievements of PromptPay for consumers.
PromptBiz is expected to go live in April next year.
The central bank expects digital payment transactions to increase to 800-1,000 per user per year in three years under its roadmap.
Transactions currently number 370 per user per year, mainly thanks to the success of the PromptPay service, Ms Siritida said.
Moreover, the Bank of Thailand cooperated with regional central banks to connect their digital payment platforms under the Asean Connectivity roadmap.
The Bank of Thailand already connected PromptPay services, including cross-border remittance and QR cross-border payments, with six regional countries.
For the next phase, the central bank plans to expand digital payment services to both Asean and Asia.
The Bank of Thailand plans to expand cross-border remittances to Malaysia, India and Indonesia, and add QR cross-border payment services to India and Hong Kong.
Ms Siritida said Asean and Asian countries have positive exposures to Thailand in several areas, such as trade, investment and tourism.
Digital payment connectivity with other countries would facilitate the growth of transactions, particularly as more nations reopen following the easing of the Covid-19 pandemic, she said.
