The Bank of Thailand is gearing up to launch QR code cross-border payments between Thailand and India by the third quarter of this year, with plans to extend the system to become a multinational payment network spanning Asia.
According to Daranee Saeju, the assistant governor for payment systems policy and the financial consumer protection group at the central bank, the payment linkage with India is scheduled to be implemented in the third quarter following collaborative efforts with countries outside of the Asean grouping.
India is slated to be the final addition to the cross-border payment network, she said.
The Bank of Thailand already established QR code cross-border payment links with Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Japan.
These cross-border transactions are facilitated by PromptPay, Thailand's national electronic payment platform.
In the case of Singapore, the cross-border payment links encompass both QR code payments and remittance services.
According to Ms Daranee, for the next phase cross-border payments will include money transfers across regions through multinational linkages, enhancing the efficiency of payment systems compared with the current bilateral arrangements.
The initiative for cross-border remittances was launched with Singapore and is set to expand to other countries in the region, she said.
In a related development, Ms Daranee said PromptPay has the potential to set a new transaction record this year, following its historic peak in 2023.
Since its launch in 2016, PromptPay transactions have demonstrated steady growth, particularly during the pandemic.
"Cash transactions have continued to decline since the introduction of PromptPay, making up around 66% of total banking transactions," she said.
PromptPay registrations now tally 77.6 million.
In December 2023, the total number of financial transactions using PromptPay reached a high of 75.9 million per day, according to the Bank of Thailand's data.
On average, daily money transfers via the platform last year amounted to 54.5 million with a total value of 130 billion baht, according to the Bank of Thailand's Payment Insight report.