Pre-registration of the ‘Prompt-Pay’ service jointly provided by all commercial banks exceeded expectations with a large number of people showing interest to pre-register when it open for registration ahead of its official registration on July 15.
Although commercial banks will assure security of the ‘Prompt-Pay’ service, many people are either still unaware or have concerns over the security of the system.
Commercial banks all over the country yesterday began to receive preregistration for the ‘Prompt-Pay’ service at all its branches and through its ATM machines or internet-banking services.
At the main branch of Bangkok Bank many people took the opportunity to preregister for the service which will tie their bank accounts to personal identification card numbers and/or to mobile telephone numbers.
Registration entails bringing along personal identification cards and bank-books or via mobile-banking services or ATM machines.
Official commencement of actual service is scheduled to begin in October of this year.
‘Prompt-Pay’ will allow money transfer under the national e-payment system and will undercut the current fees charged by banks by offering free service for transactions not exceeding 5,000 Baht, according to BangkokPost.
Unlike current systems, ‘Prompt-Pay’ will not impose any charges when transferring money to other banks or to the same bank in a cross-clearing zone.
On the other hand, many other people have cited that they did not understand what the service is all about.
One bank customer voiced concerns over the security of the service.
She mainly feared that her accounts would now be open to hacking and stated that she would not be registering for the program unless banks are accountable for damage or losses.
Responding to the public fears, the chairman of the Thai Bankers’ Association Mr Pridi Daochai stated that he believes that the ‘Prompt-Pay’ system would pose no problems for banks’ clients.
He said that the Thai Bankers’ Association and the Bank of Thailand have designed a question-answer questionnaire to provide information to the public to alleviate these fears.
But one customer said what will not help however is the policy of many banks that state that they will not be taking responsibility for damages or loss from hacked accounts or otherwise.
Such an attitude will not help allay public’s fears and will no doubt greatly undermine the integrity of the service.
