BANGKOK – The national bank has recently revealed that a large number of Thais don’t know that they can use debit cards in the same manner as credit cards, which has resulted in a low volume of usage.
Bank of Thailand’s Assistant Governor of the Payment Systems Policy and Financial Technology Group, Siritida Panomwon Na Ayudhya indicated today that the bank has already instructed various financial institutes to put more effort into promoting the use of debit cards in place of cash. She said a debit card is more convenient and safer than cash, which also has a higher management cost.
She pointed out that most consumers are under the impression that the cards can only be used to withdraw cash from Automatic Teller Machines.
Furthermore the national bank has a goal of installing Electronic Draft Capture (EDC) devices in at least 560,000 stores nationwide by March next year, in order to provide better support to debit cardholders.
The Assistant Governor mentioned that several banks have lowered the processing fee, in order to make the paying method more appealing to a wider range of vendors.
