Thailand Implements Daily Transfer Limits to Combat Online Financial Fraud

Thai banks are now mandated to impose a daily limit of 50,000 baht on numerous online transfers. This measure is designed to mitigate financial fraud, with a particular focus on protecting vulnerable customers, including children and the elderly. The Bank of Thailand announced this rule on Tuesday, aiming to combat the significant criminal activity of online scams prevalent in Southeast Asia, which generates billions of dollars annually.

under 50,000 baht, under 200,000 baht, and above 200,000 baht. The specific tier assigned to each customer will depend on their risk profile and the banks' assessment under know-your-customer (KYC) rules.

Customers with a proven history of responsible financial behavior will be able to continue transferring funds at their usual levels. The implementation of this measure will be phased, with new mobile and internet banking customers subject to the limits by the end of this month. Existing customers will be brought under the new regulations by the end of the year.

According to a recent report, Thailand has approximately 12 million mobile banking users. Prior safeguards implemented by the central bank previously capped mobile banking transfers at 50,000 baht per transaction, requiring facial recognition, and 200,000 baht per day in total.

In June of this year alone, authorities received reports of 24,500 scam cases related to money transfers, resulting in total losses of 2.8 billion baht. The average loss per case was 114,000 baht, with the largest single fraudulent transfer reaching 4.9 million baht. Scammers typically needed only three minutes to transfer half of the stolen funds, while victims took between 19 and 25 hours to report the crime.

During the first six months of this year, children under 15 were involved in 78,468 financial scam cases, while victims over 65 years of age accounted for 416,453 cases.