The Bank of Thailand has permitted banks to launch cross-bank bill payment through the PromptPay service, with lowered fees of up to five baht per transaction for those made online and at ATMs, while credit-card-based quick response (QR) code payment is expected to be introduced commercially by the first quarter of next year.
"The Bank of Thailand has extended PromptPay services to cross-bank bill payment to make it easier and cheaper for customers to pay bills and make cash management for businesses more efficient," said Siritida Panomwon Na Ayudhya, the central bank's deputy governor for payment systems policy and the financial technology group.
Customers are allowed to make payment only at banks listed on bills, so companies are required to open accounts at many banks to facilitate customers, which is costly and inefficient.
Ms Siritida said the cross-bank bill payment service lets customers pay bills through PromptPay to any bank with which service providers have an account.
Starting today, companies that are interested in participating in PromptPay-based bill payments can sign up at banks that offer the service.
Banks offering cross-bank bill payment through PromptPay for both retail and corporate clients include Bangkok Bank, Krungthai Bank, Bank of Ayudhya (BAY), Kasikornbank, Kiatnakin Bank, Siam Commercial Bank, Thanachart Bank (TBank), Citibank and Mizuho Bank.
Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation will provide bill payment service only for business-to-business transactions, while the state-owned Government Savings Bank will offer the service only to retail customers.
Ms Siritida said the PromptPay cross-bank bill payment charges cheaper fees of up to five baht per transaction for payments through ATMs, mobile banking and internet banking, and up to 20 baht for bill payment at branches.
Banks typically charge bill payment fees in the range of 10-20 baht per transaction.
Fee payments for charity will be waived, but the scope of such payments will be announced later by the central bank.
Ms Siritida said the central bank will extend the QR code payment service to credit cards in the first quarter of next year.
Credit-card-based QR code payments are in the second phase of the QR code payment service. Five commercial banks have launched the QR code service based on PromptPay.
Ms Siritida said three more banks -- TMB Bank, TBank and BAY -- and non-bank Krungthai Card are testing out their QR code payment systems in the Bank of Thailand's regulatory sandbox.
As of the end of October, PromptPay had 36 million registrants with 200 billion baht in money transfer value, rising from 32 million registrants with 120 billion baht worth of transactions in July.