Thailand, Singapore launch linkage of real-time payment systems

Krung Thai Bank PCL

29/04/2021 08:34

BANGKOK, April 29 (Reuters) - The Bank of Thailand (BOT) and
the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) launched on Thursday a
linkage of Thailand’s PromptPay and Singapore's PayNow real-time
retail payment systems.
    Describing it as the first of its kind globally, they said
in a statement the linkage followed several years of
collaboration between the BOT and MAS, payment system operators,
bankers' associations and banks. (https://bit.ly/3t3aNe8)
    Customers of participating banks in Thailand and Singapore
will be able to transfer up to S$1,000 or 25,000 baht ($800)
daily between the countries, using just a mobile phone number.
    The process will not require a user to populate fields such
as the recipient's full name and bank account details, as
required with a normal remittance.
    "This service by the MAS and the BOT will effectively
address customers' long standing pain points in the area of
cross-border transfers and remittances including long
transaction times and high costs," BOT Governor Sethaput
Suthiwartnarueput said in the joint statement. 
   Initially, Bangkok Bank  BBL.BK  Kasikornbank  KBANK.BK ,
Krung Thai Bank  KTB.BK  and Siam Commercial Bank  SCB.BK  will
provide the service in Thailand, according to the BOT.
    In Singapore, DBS Bank  DBSM.SI  OCBC  OCBC.SI  and United
Overseas Bank  UOBH.SI  will be providers.
    Ravi Menon, Managing Director of MAS, said the shared
objective with the BOT was to work with other Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) "to expand this bilateral
linkage into a network of linked retail payment systems across
ASEAN." (https://bit.ly/3vrO39p https://bit.ly/3vrO39p))
   ($1 = 31.24 baht)

 (Reporting by Orathai Sriring
Editing by Ed Davies)
 ((orathai.sriring@tr.com; +662 0802309;))