The value of e-money transactions this year is expected to grow at a faster pace than the 20% increase to 80 billion baht in 2016, a Bank of Thailand (BoT) official says.
"Growth this year is expected to be better than last year as consumers use the service more as providers increase their range of services. But consumers should verify before using them," said Naphongthawat Phothikit, a director of the payment systems policy department.
Consumers can initially check the names of authorised e-money service providers from the central bank's website and the conditions for refunds as service providers are required to pay users back within 15 days.
In the event that e-money service providers fail to comply with the central banks' requirements, they are subject to both imprisonment and fines.
According to the Bank of Thailand's regulations, e-payment service providers must win the approval from the central bank, have minimum registered capital of 200 million baht and park the money of their users in the banks' deposit accounts.
Any e-money service provider is liable for up to one-year in jail and a fine ranging from 20,000 to 2 million baht if they fail to deposit their customers' money as required by law.
At present, there are 103 e-money service providers but only 29 licenses have been issued by the BoT.
Meanwhile, Nisarat Trairatvorakul, the payment systems policy department's senior director, said providers must also have relevant IT systems and give monthly reports on customers' money stored in value products, on top of preparing financial statements every six months.
"Most importantly, shareholders must maintain at least 8% of their customers' stored value as reserves to build up consumer confidence. For instance, if their customers place 100 million baht in stored value products, they must set aside 8 million as reserves," she said.
Mrs Nisarat said that the level of the central bank's oversight of e-money is similar to its supervision for banks, as e-money is considered a service intended to increase payment convenience for goods and services, not for turning a profit.
But the BoT's supervision of e-money service providers is still limited to juristic persons who have registered a business in Thailand, she said.