Banks set to offer digital statements

Benefits include low cost, convenience

The Bank of Thailand and three banking associations have built up a data ecosystem and plan to offer digital banking statements by January next year.

The central bank yesterday signed an agreement on data ecosystem development with the Thai Bankers’ Association, the Government Financial Institutions Association, and the Association of International Banks, representing a combined 29 banks.

Under the agreement, they will collaborate to develop a digital data ecosystem to provide consumers with more convenience, better security, low costs and less time spent on banking transactions.

Ten banks are scheduled to initially offer bank statements via a digital channel as a service in January 2022.

The 10 banks represent 98% of total deposit accounts in the banking industry, said central bank governor Sethaput Suthiwartnarueput in a statement.

Pirajit Padmasuta, the senior director for financial institutions strategy at the central bank, said the move makes requesting a bank statement more convenient.

For example, if a deposit customer at bank A and bank B wants to apply for a mortgage with bank C now, he or she needs to provide a bank statement from both banks to prove monthly income to bank C, she said.

Under the new system, the customer can simply ask both banks to send a statement to bank C digitally on this platform.

Issuing digital bank statements saves time and costs for both customers and banks.

Banks traditionally charge 100-200 baht to issue a bank statement and the process takes a few days.

The digital platform occurs in a few minutes and has a lower fee.

The central bank set a ceiling fee for digital bank statements at 75 baht per transaction, which could eventually dip given market competition, said Ms Pirajit.

The fee should fall to the same level as fund transfers via PromptPay, the national digital payment platform, she said.

“Some banks are considering waiving fees for digital bank statements, while others are mulling charging 20-30 baht per transaction,” Ms Pirajit said.

In a related matter, Bangkok Bank yesterday launched additional features for its mobile banking app, including the ability to open a mutual fund account, international fund transfers, transactions via a foreign currency deposit account, and account reactivation with an account number and facial authentication, in line with mobile banking trends.

‘‘ Some banks are considering waiving fees for digital statements.

PIRAJIT PADMASUTA Senior director for financial institutions strategy, Bank of Thailand