Quick response (QR) code payment services from Bank of Ayudhya (BAY) and TMB Bank (TMB) have won the Bank of Thailand's approval to exit from the regulatory sandbox, say senior officials at the two banks.
This is the second batch of bank QR payment services the Bank of Thailand has approved.
The new digital payment service has already been approved for five banks, who are likely to experience first-mover advantages as a large number of merchants have already signed up with them, said Thakorn Piyapan, head of Krungsri Consumer, the unsecured lending arm of BAY.
Despite the delayed entrance, BAY will focus on larger merchants, with a target of 20,000-30,000 in the first 3-4 months, he said.
TMB and two other banks were approved by the central bank late last week, enabling them to commercially launch the PromptPay-based payment service that requires users to scan a bar code on smartphones, said Ratchakorn Chayapirat, head of domestic transactions at TMB.
Last month the Bank of Thailand announced five banks -- Kasikornbank, Siam Commercial Bank, Krungthai Bank, Bangkok Bank and Government Savings Bank -- had met the criteria to provide PromptPay-based QR code payment services to the public, while Thanachart Bank, BAY and TMB continued to test their QR code payment services in the regulatory sandbox.
TMB has also prepared both educational and marketing campaigns to build awareness of the new digital payment technology, he said.
Ronald Bart Huisman, TMB's chief retail banking officer, said QR code payment is another phase to develop digital payments in Thailand and move the country towards a cashless society.
Digital payment will also help reduce operating expenses in the banking industry and the country, he said.
Separately, TMB aims to increase the number of its mobile banking users to more than 2 million next year and become the most advocated bank by 2022, which implies that the bank is the most preferred and recommended by customers. TMB is the third-most recommended bank.
The bank targets increasing the number of its mobile banking app users by 1 million and continue raising its active user numbers next year, said Mr Huisman.
TMB, the country's seventh-largest bank by assets, reported total users for its TMB Touch mobile banking app of 1.2 million, of which around half are active users.
TMB Touch was launched three years ago.
Financial transactions made through TMB Touch quadrupled to 33.6 million in October this year from 8.4 million in the same period last year, propelled by money transfers.
TMB shares closed yesterday on the Stock Exchange of Thailand at 2.96 baht, up two satang, in trade worth 339 million baht.