Whether it’s paying an electricity bill, buying food from a vendor or sending money to a friend, if you’re in Thailand, all you have to do is scan a QR code, or input a phone number or a verified ID. Transactions are instant, free, and not restrictive of which bank you or the receiver use.

In 2021, that’s not quite groundbreaking. Countries like Singapore and India have similar real-time payment systems. But how about being able to do the same things overseas?

Thai users can now pay for goods and services and transfer money to individuals in Indonesia as easily, and vice versa. The two countries’ central banks sealed Bangkok Post QR payment with Indonesia finalised Read more sealed Bangkok Post QR payment with Indonesia finalised a partnership last month. Thailand also has similar tie-ups with Singapore and Malaysia.

But unlike other Southeast Asian countries, there’s no startup or unicorn making the payments magic happen in Thailand. This digital convenience is courtesy of PromptPay, a four-year-old interbank payment system launched in 2017. It’s a creation of Thailand’s banks in partnership with the central bank, the Bank of Thailand (BoT).

MasterPlan

Launched commercially in January 2017, PromptPay was developed by Vocalink, a financial services company that was acquired by Mastercard for U$920 million in 2017, over a two-year period. It’s controlled by the National Interbank Transaction Management and Exchange (ITMX), an organisation that was established by the Thai Bankers’ Association, which falls under BoT.

MasterPlan  //  Launched commercially in January 2017, PromptPay was developed by Vocalink, a financial services company that was acquired by Mastercard for U$920 million in 2017, over a two-year period. It’s controlled by the National Interbank Transaction Management and Exchange (ITMX), an organisation that was established by the Thai Bankers’ Association, which falls under BoT.

“PromptPay is open to all participants, both banks and non-banks. However, [entities] joining PromptPay [are] required to meet the high technical/security and regulatory requirements,” a BoT spokesperson said, adding that non-banks could partner with a sponsoring bank to join.

In practical terms, however, PromptPay is restricted to banks only. Since Thailand’s banks lost out on transaction fees by introducing PromptPay, it’s understandable why they wouldn’t want to open it up to non-bank financial institutions. Like the payment services offered by tech giants Grab and Sea.

And evidence suggests PromptPay is working. The service surpassed 56 million users in April 2021 in a country of 70 million, according to BoT governor Sethaput Suthiwartnarueput. It recorded 729 million transactions in June 2021, up nearly 60% year-on-year and more than double the 295 million in January 2020, before the Covid outbreak, according to BoT data.