The Bank of Thailand and the Thai Bankers' Association (TBA) have agreed to raise the ceiling on fund transfer amounts to 700,000 baht per transaction via the online channel from the current 50,000 baht, starting Monday, in the latest attempt to prevent a repeat of a recent system outage.
The higher transaction amount for both internet and mobile banking platforms will help lower number of transactions and, in turn, smooth out money transfers, said Siritida Panomwon Na Ayudhya, the central bank's deputy governor.
"The new limitation will help ease traffic of the overall system," Ms Siritida said. "With the current maximum amount of 50,000 baht per transaction, those who need to transfer more than the threshold must split transferred money into more than one transaction."
Each bank will later set its own maximum amount for money transfers over PromptPay-based online channels, she said, adding that consumers can also set their own maximum money transfer amount to meet their own needs.
Banks earlier this month agreed to double mobile banking transaction capacity during peak periods by year-end to prevent a future system crash after last month's technological glitch that delayed millions of transactions.
The Banking Information Technology Club, an arm of TBA, aimed to double capacity for banks' financial transactions and the National Interbank Transaction Management and Exchange Co (ITMX).
The measures came after banks experienced a technological glitch on Aug 31. The system crash started at Kasikornbank's core switch because of human error on the internal network, disrupting other banks' system for several hours and forcing ITMX to remove KBank from the central system.
KBank, the country's largest mobile banking provider by users, had total mobile banking transactions of 5.3 million on Aug 31, bringing the total for the month to 122 million.
Money transfer via digital platform has surged after banks waived fees for cross-zone and interbank money transfers, top-ups and bill payments on the digital channel from late March.
In related news, Visa International Thailand on Wednesday launched credit card-based quick response (QR) payment in collaboration with seven card issuers. The innovative payment technology lets Visa holders link their cards to mobile devices and scan to pay.
Apart from the existing seven card issuers joining with Visa to offer QR credit card payment, another five financial institutions are in the pipeline, Suripong Tantiyanon, country manager for Visa, said without revealing names.
"The cooperation will expand QR credit card spending at small merchants, including street vendors and those in wet markets," he said. "Now Visa cardholders can scan to pay at some noodle shops."
Digital payments are expected to gradually transform the country into a cashless society. Cash payment account for 72% of the country's total retail payment volume.
Credit card issuers testing out QR payment in the central bank's regulatory sandbox have continued to exit.