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Thailand Cards & Payments Market Report
- Published Date: April 2023
THAILAND CARDS AND PAYMENTS REPORT
A comprehensive overview of the cards, payments and consumer banking market in Thailand, with clearsighted commentary backed by relevant data.
On the back of a post-Covid rebound of credit-card volumes along with soaring digitalisation, this market's enormous potential is ever-growing across the board. Intra-regional interoperability is also a multiplying factor, led by QR codes but with cross-border moves by banking and tech corporations via digital products also featuring.
Cooperation at the political level embracing initiatives from financial-services integration to digital currencies contributes a further propellant. Instant-payments platform PromptPay, now half a decade old, has proven popular: there were almost 15 billion transactions during 2022, an increase of 47 percent compared to 2022.
What is happening in the Thai cards and payments market?
Profit per card, on credit-card billed volumes up by a fifth over the span, is forecast to increase healthily by the middle of the decade. However, the credit-card user base remains small at just 24 percent of adults and is focused increasingly on the Premium segment. The market is closely regulated, with caps on credit-card limits and interest rates along with a relatively large minimum payment requirement.
What can we expect in cards and digital payments here?
New pay-later players such as Atome Thailand are attracting the unbanked, students, entry-level workers and those who do not qualify for a credit card. Currently, BNPL is unregulated here. The QR code continues to rise, with the local standard supported by all networks, banks, PromptPay and other payment providers. Cross-border interoperability with Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines is being introduced.
What about global players? What are they encountering in this cards and payments market?
Visa and Mastercard dominate credit cards, with American Express, JCB, UnionPay and Diners Club all present but badging less than a tenth of cards between them. Visa leads Mastercard by some distance in credit cards.
How are other players and challengers faring?
Smartphone usage rates are now in the 90s, propelling the country into mobile-first status in the not-too-distant future. The TrueMoney mobile wallet is the leading e-wallet instrument here, followed closely by Rabbit LINE Pay.
This is what you will learn from this report:
The report explores the Thailand payments system covering infrastructure payment preferences, consumer payment trends and the development of online payment systems. As well as a detailed Thailand credit card report our experts chart the development of mobile payments including proximity and P2P payments.
Our writers and researchers frame information in contexts such as historical, sectoral and regional trends, adding a layer of value often missing from the rolling news cycle. The report enables clients to make sound strategic business decisions with the support of detailed historic and forecast market data for Thailand's cards and payments markets.
Thailand Payments Research | Report Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Demographics and the economy
Payments environment
Cards market
Mobile payments
Profit pool
The networks
Key retail banks and issuers
Acquiring and processing
Online acquiring
Regulatory and other cards market information
Data Tables
(All 2016-25F unless otherwise stated)
1: Demographic and economic indicators
2: Ownership of key consumer devices
3: Internet usage by population
4: Access points 2016-23E
5: Account penetration
6: Consumer payment 2016-23E
7: B2C e-commerce payment methods 2016-23E
8: Total cards payment metrics
9: Credit card numbers
10: Total credit cards metrics
11: Credit cards profitability indicators
12: Debit cards numbers
13: Debit cards metrics
14: Prepaid/e-money cards metrics
15 : Mobile P2P payments: 2017-25
16: Thailand market profit pool including credit card numbers, billed volumes, outstandings, interest incomes, net interest revenues, merchant revenues, card fee revenues, other non-interest incomes, total revenues, net credit losses, operating expenses, total expenses, pre-tax profits, merchant service charges, rollover rates, APR, net credit losses to outstandings, operating costs to revenues, ROA (pre-tax profits to outstandings).
(All 2016-23F below unless otherwise stated)
17: Networks' credit card market shares
18: Networks' credit card numbers
19: Networks' credit card billed volume
20: Networks' number of credit card transactions
21: Networks' average credit card transaction value
22: Credit card interchange fees by network
23: Networks' debit card market shares
24: Networks' debit card numbers
25: Networks' debit card billed volume
26: Networks' number of debit card transactions
27: Networks' average debit card transaction value
28: Debit card interchange fees by network
29: Key credit card issuers market shares by credit card numbers 2018-23F
30: Key issuers market shares in credit card outstandings 2018-23F
31: Key debit card issuers market shares by debit card numbers 2018-23F
32: Merchant acquirer credit card market share 2022E
33: Credit card merchant service charges 2016-25F
34: Merchant acquirer debit card market share: 2022E
35: Debit card merchant service charges 2016-25F
36: Credit card issuer/issuing processor relationships
37: Credit card acquirer/acquiring processor relationships
38: Credit card issuing processor market shares by card numbers 2022E
39: Credit card acquiring processor market shares by the number of POS transactions 2022E
40: Online merchant acquirer market share 2022E
Thailand Country Report | Selected Extracts
Payments Environment
Thai payments continue to transition from cash to digital. The government and central bank have been key drivers in this regard, with various stakeholders from banks and card associations to emerging fintech players and domestic merchants all playing a part. At the end of 2022, the central bank reported that the financial system is stable as the country emerges from the pandemic.
Demographics and the Economy
Due to official discouragement of large families, the country's population of 72 million has been growing at a slow pace. While efforts are being made to reverse the situation, currently about a fifth of the population are older than 60.
Cards Market
Thailand's credit cards market continues to grow at modest levels as only a small cohort meets the minimum income requirement set by the central bank. However, with an average of 36 credit cards per 100 adults in 2022, the market retains great potential in the mid- to long-term as the country's economy improves and an increasing number of consumers become eligible.
Mobile Payments
In Thailand, mobile network operators have a dominant share of the mobile money subscriber base: almost 98 percent. There are three major MNOs: Advanced Info Service (AIS), Total Access Communication (DTAC) and TRUE. The latter pair plan to merge.
Profit Pool
Thailand's credit cards market has seen its profitability decline since the events of 2020. Pre-tax profits were estimated at $933 million for 2022, an increase of almost 40 percent compared to 2021...Argus Advisory Research (AAR) forecasts credit-card profitability to return an average growth trend of about 14 percent between 2023 and 2025.
Card Networks
Visa, followed by Mastercard, is the dominant card scheme in Thailand in terms of credit cards in issue and billed volume... As with credit cards, Visa dominates the debit cards market in Thailand with some 70 percent market share in terms of the number issued at the end of 2022. Mastercard and UnionPay networks account for the remaining market share.
Key Retail Banks and Issuers
Although there were 30 retail banks operating in Thailand at the end of 2022, the top five accounted for an estimated 65 percent of total banking assets and 69 percent of the total branch network. According to latest available central bank data, the country's banking system recorded a net profit of over $5.5 billion in 2021, an increase of 24 percent over the previous year.
Acquiring and Processing
Merchant acquiring here is relatively consolidated as the low margins have tended to curb banks' appetite for the business. KBank and Bangkok Bank dominate, collectively accounting for more than half of total market share. Acquirers typically compete on price by offering relatively low merchant rates for processing on-us transactions.
Online Acquiring
Thailand is considered one of the leading business-to-consumer e-commerce markets in Southeast Asia, responsible for an estimated $63 billion of sales in 2022. The development of online retailing in the country is being spurred on by deepening internet penetration and state initiatives to improve the payment and delivery infrastructure.
Regulatory and Markets Information
The Bank of Thailand (BOT) acts as a regulatory authority for financial institutions in Thailand. It supervises commercial banks, finance companies, credit institutions, asset management companies, e-payment services and credit card companies.
Thailand Payments Report | Entities Referenced
2C2P
Advance Intelligence Group
Advanced Info Service
AEON Thana Sinsap
Agoda
AirAsia
AirPay
AIS
AIS
Aldo
Alibaba Group
Alipay
Alipay
Alipay+
Amber
Amex
Amway
ASEANPay Project
Atome
BAHTNET
Bank of Ayudhya
Bank of China
Bank of Thailand
Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ
Bankable
BAY
BBL BeWallet
BC Global
BeMerchant NextGen
BeWallet
Big C
Big C Foodplace
Big Camera
Bitkub
Black Canyon
Boku
BOT
BTS SmartPass
Burger King
Café Amazon
Carrefour
Citi Thailand
Club Thailand
CoinJar
CyberSource
Daddy Dough
DinaCard
Diners Club
Discover
Dolfin
Domino's
DTAC
Dunkin' Donuts
Easy Pass
Facebook
Fintech Fast Track
FIT Auto
FitbitPay
Galeries Lafayette
GCash
Gourmet Market
Government Savings Bank
Grab
GrabPay
Harrods
HomePro
Hua Seng Hong Dim Sum
Inthanon-LionRock
iPay
IT City
ITMX
JCB
JD Central
Jiffy
Jusco
KakaoPay
Kasikornbank
KBank
KCC
Kentucky Fried Chicken
KGroup Private Banking
KMA
K-Payment Gateway
K-PowerP@y
Krungsri Bank
Krungsri Consumer Finance
Krungsri Credit Card
KTC
Lazada
LINE BK
LINE Corporation
LINE Pay
Liquid Group
LNWshop.com
M1ST Network
Madhub
Major Cineplex
Makro
Mall Group
Mall Group
Mastercard
MaxValu
McDonald's
Merchant iPay
Merkle Capital
Messenger
Meta
Metropolitan Rapid Transit
Ministry of Finance
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group
Mobile First Network
mPay
MRT Pass
MUFG
National Interbank Management and Exchange
National ITMX
Nium
Oishi Group
OneSiam
PACE
Pandora
PAObank
Pay with K Plus
Payment Systems Roadmap
PayPal
Pine Labs
Ping An OneConnect Bank
Power Buy
PromptCard
PTT
Rabbit LINE Pay
Railsbank
Railsr
Razer
Razer Fintech
Razer Pay
Ripple
RLP
Robinhood
RuPay
Samyan Mitrtown
SCB
Selfridges
Sephora
Shein
Shopee
Siam City Bank
Siam Commercial Bank
Siam Piwat
Siam Takashimaya
SiamPay
SkyTrain
Smart Purse
Starbucks
Starvingtime
Stripe
Subway
Tarad. com
Tesco Lotus
Tesco
ThaiePay
Thunes
Total Access Communication
Touch n Go
TPN
Trade and Development Bank of Mongolia
Traveloka
TRUE
TrueMoney
Tung Ngern
UCard
UChoose
UMall
UnionPay
Visa
Waldorf Astoria
WeChat
WeChat Pay
Wooricard
Worldline
Zalora
MORE ASIA-PACIFIC PAYMENTS REPORTS
Argus Advisory Research reports deliver invaluable market and competitor intelligence on payments cards, e-money, acquiring/processing, retail banking, and consumer credit. Analysts and researchers use both primary and secondary source data and conduct in-depth interviews with senior industry executives and local experts.
See more Asia-Pacific Country Reports or explore the full range of worldwide cards & payments reports available for 72 markets world-wide.
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