The second failure this year of the bank transfer system once again came out of the blue, and once again came with assurances it can't happen again.
On New Year's Eve, it seemed that programmers for the banking system forgot to tell the ATM computers that the calendar was rolling over. Last Friday morning, payday for virtually every employee in the country, bank computer systems were overwhelmed with "too many users" trying to do ordinary banking.
And in truth, last week was the third failure of the heavily promoted, government supported PromptPay cashless system. Just over two years ago, after numerous warnings from legal and technology experts, banks had to take the software offline for a security rewrite. Embarrassingly, that was days after Finance Minister Apisak Tantivorawong touted the high security of PromptPay. It took another year, until June of 2017, before the banks declared the transfer system was "a big success".
Six months later, on New Year's Eve, no one was able for 15 hours to use the vaunted transfer apps and software to pay for holiday services. Four days later, the Thai Bankers Association explained that although it was not the banks' fault, they would do the approximately 20,000 ill-served users a favour and not charge them for using alternative transfer services. "There will be no similar problems in the future," assured the TBA president, Pridi Daochai of Kasikornbank.
Mr Pridi and Kasikornbank have been the consistent leaders in bringing the concept of cash transfers over smartphones to Thailand. He was a leading proponent of PromptPay. When the bank first put PromptPay apps online in August of 2016, Mr Pridi personally led Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to sign up. At the time, the prime minister understandably believed PromptPay would be a symbol of his twin Thailand 4.0 and Digital Thailand projects.
It was grim irony, then, last Friday morning, when PromptPay and other transfer systems went offline again and Kasikornbank had to be taken off the nationwide banking system entirely. All electronic money transfers, withdrawals and payment services crashed.
Those who managed to get any connection at all, on their smartphones or on ATMs, received the message about too many users trying to use the system at once. That was an error message built into the software, and it remains to be seen if that was the actual problem. Banks seem to be in no hurry to inform their customers and the public about details behind what they mistakenly call a "glitch".
The problem occurred just less than two weeks after the National e-Payment Committee announced it would raise Promptpay's fee-waiver ceiling for money transfers of up to 700,000 baht in the next two months, before raising the cap further to 2 million baht to encourage the use of the national e-Payment scheme -- a move that signified the scheme's success.
As of Monday, bankers were still calling the crash a "glitch". That is far from evident. A banking system that failed to plan for a surge of business when the last day of the month falls on Friday has problems far more serious than any mere computer hiccough. In the days before such computers and PromptPay apps, every bank branch knew to get all staff manning every teller's position and desk.
Last week's second money-transfer crash in eight months is the very opposite of a glitch. It is almost the most serious problem that could occur. It revealed abysmal planning by bankers. It will eventually be revealed which group or department head was so careless. But in the meantime, banks will have to deal with a massive loss of confidence in the systems they touted as revolutionary for consumers.
There is little doubt of the value of a reliable, 24-hour system of electronic money transfers. Such a system is a foundation of the government's eventual goal of a cashless society. Last Friday suggested we haven't reached that goal. Systems that crash on two of the most predictably busy business days show that bank consumer-friendly payment systems are still a work in progress.