PromptPay: the rail that took over retail payments
PromptPay is Thailand’s instant retail credit transfer rail. It is run by National ITMX (NITMX), the interbank switch owned by the country’s banks, under a mandate from the Bank of Thailand. Alias registration opened in 2016, and the service has been live since 2017. Payments are addressed with a proxy identifier, called an alias, which replaces the payee’s account number in the transfer instruction. The payer enters the alias. The switch resolves it to account details, then routes the instruction to the receiving bank.
- Mobile phone number, the dominant alias and the one behind nearly every street vendor’s QR code.
- National ID card number (citizen ID), available only to Thai individuals.
- Tax identification number, the alias for legal entities and the one a registered merchant uses to get paid.
- E-wallet ID, the alias for licensed e-wallets, which can be paid just like a bank account.
- Bank account number, the traditional route, always available with no prior registration.
| Transfer amount | Maximum fee | Actual practice |
|---|---|---|
| Up to THB 5,000 | Free | Free at all banks |
| THB 5,001 to 30,000 | Less than THB 2 | Mostly free since 2018 |
| THB 30,001 to 100,000 | Less than THB 5 | Mostly free since 2018 |
| Over THB 100,000 | Less than THB 10 | Mostly free since 2018 |
PromptPay’s position in Thai retail payments makes it the benchmark for every other way of getting paid, cards included. Competing instruments have to justify themselves by what they offer beyond a free instant transfer. Cards enable payment on credit, give the purchase the protection of the dispute process, and let merchants accept foreign cardholders who have no Thai alias.
Thai QR Payment: one standard, one code at the counter
Thai QR Payment, also known as the Standardised Thai QR Code, is the national standard that defines the content of a payment QR code in Thailand. Its specifications were published in October 2017 and rolled out from 2018, led by the Bank of Thailand and National ITMX, ahead of QR standardization in most other markets. They build on the EMVCo specification in merchant-presented mode, where the payee displays the code and the payer scans it, with local adaptations. Because there is a single national standard, a merchant displays just one code, which every banking app can read.
The standard allows two types of code, with different operating requirements and risk profiles. A static QR is a sticker printed once, carrying the payee’s alias and no amount. The payer types in the amount. The incoming transfer then carries no reference tied to the sale. A dynamic QR is generated by the point-of-sale system for a specific transaction, with the amount and a reference, so reconciliation is automatic. A static code costs nothing to deploy and needs no integration, and reconciliation is done by reading the bank statement. A dynamic code requires a POS system connected to the payment provider, and it restores the link between each payment received and the corresponding sale.
| Payment method | Merchant fee | Reconciliation | Benefit |
|---|---|---|---|
| PromptPay QR (static) | None or negligible | Manual, from the statement | Near-zero cost, immediate deployment |
| PromptPay QR (dynamic) | None or negligible, plus the PSP’s fee | Automatic, one reference per transaction | The best balance of cost and control in the market |
| Local wallet (TrueMoney, ShopeePay, Rabbit LINE Pay) | ≈ 0.5% to 1.5% | Automatic, via the PSP | Captive user base, promotions funded by the wallet |
| Domestic card routed through local switching | ≈ 1.5% to 2.5% | Automatic | Deferred debit, purchase protection, banked cardholders |
| Foreign-issued card | Well above domestic rates | Automatic | The only rail that lets merchants accept tourists without a local app |
- Require a dynamic QR once volume exceeds a few dozen payments a day: without a unique reference, reconciliation at scale is impossible.
- Integrate the incoming notification (PSP webhook or bank API) as the only trigger for releasing goods.
- Check the cross-border coverage of your QR code: not every Thai QR is accepted by every foreign app, and coverage depends on the bank that issued the code.
- Check the alias behind the code: a QR code in a director’s name rather than the company’s creates an immediate tax and accounting problem.
The plumbing: BAHTNET, ICAS, National ITMX
BAHTNET is the Bank of Thailand’s real-time gross settlement system, in service since 1995 and now migrated to the ISO 20022 messaging standard. It settles the net positions of PromptPay and of the bulk payment systems run by NITMX. The two layers run at different speeds. For the user, a retail payment completes instantly, while the interbank settlement behind it remains net and deferred.
| System | Operator | Since | Function |
|---|---|---|---|
| BAHTNET | Bank of Thailand | 1995 | Real-time gross settlement, ISO 20022, final settlement asset |
| ICAS (Imaged Cheque Clearing and Archive System) | Bank of Thailand | – | Clearing of imaged checks; designated a highly important system |
| PromptPay | National ITMX, mandated by the Bank of Thailand | 2017 | Retail instant transfers with alias addressing |
| Thai QR Payment | Bank of Thailand / National ITMX | 2018 | National QR standard built on PromptPay |
| TPN (Thai Payment Network) / Local Switching | National ITMX, with Bangkok Bank, Krungthai, Kasikornbank, and Siam Commercial Bank | 2016 | Domestic switch for Thai debit cards |
| PromptBiz | National ITMX | 2023 | Electronic invoice, payment, and receipt carried together in ISO 20022 |
PromptBiz is the B2B invoicing and payment infrastructure run by National ITMX. It launched on August 29, 2023, with five pilot banks: Krungthai, Bangkok Bank, Bank of Ayudhya, Kasikornbank, and TMBThanachart. Siam Commercial Bank was due to follow. Invoices, payments, and receipts travel together over it in ISO 20022. The stated goal is to open up credit to small businesses based on transaction data rather than balance sheets.
Cross-border links: ten jurisdictions connected
Thailand is the most connected hub in Southeast Asia for cross-border retail payments. It led the way in 2021 with the PromptPay–PayNow link, the world’s first connection between two instant retail payment systems using proxy addressing. A mobile number is all it takes to send money between Bangkok and Singapore, and the model has been copied across the region. Yet each new link has required its own bilateral agreement, which limits how many corridors a national operator can open.
| Partner | Counterpart system | Direction | Launch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cambodia | KHQR | Two-way | 2020 |
| Vietnam | VietQR | Two-way | 2021 |
| Malaysia | DuitNow QR | Two-way, in two phases | 2021 |
| Singapore | NETS QR (merchant payments) and PayNow (person-to-person transfers) | Two-way | 2021 |
| Indonesia | QRIS | Two-way | 2022 |
| Laos | LAO QR | Two-way | April 2024 |
| Hong Kong | FPS QR | Two-way | – |
| Japan | MyPromptQR | Outbound only | – |
| South Korea | Paybooc | Inbound only | – |
| China | Alipay, WeChat Pay, UnionPay | Inbound only | October 30, 2025 |
These inbound links change how merchants serve tourists. A Thai merchant displaying a correctly issued Thai QR code can now accept payments from visitors from nine jurisdictions with no terminal, no card acquiring contract, and no significant acquiring fee. Japan is the exception: that link only serves Thai travelers paying in Japan. Coverage depends on the bank that issued the code, since not every Thai QR code is connected to every corridor. Each bank’s list of open corridors changes with every new link, so checking coverage means asking the bank, not changing a setting on the POS system.
Nexus: moving beyond bilateral links before they become unmanageable
Thailand’s network of links rests on agreements signed pair by pair between national systems. Each corridor requires its own agreement, settlement bank, FX arrangement, and testing cycle, and the cost grows with the square of the number of participants. Integration effort therefore rises faster than the number of countries reached. Since PromptPay–PayNow opened, the region’s central banks have been working on a multilateral setup to replace these agreements.
Nexus is a project to connect instant payment systems multilaterally, originally designed by the BIS Innovation Hub. It uses a hub-and-spoke model: each instant payment system connects once and can reach all the others. Governance has passed to Nexus Global Payments (NGP), a Singapore-incorporated nonprofit company set up on March 26, 2025. Its founders are the central banks of India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. The blueprint was completed in July 2024. The system is still not live.
The digital baht: tested extensively, never issued
The Bank of Thailand has been working on central bank digital currency (CBDC) since 2018, but has not issued a digital baht to date. Few central banks have taken experimentation this far. The work has followed two separate tracks. Wholesale CBDC, limited to settlement between financial institutions, led to cross-border prototypes, one of which is still running. Retail CBDC, meant for the public, went through a closed-group pilot that ended with no decision to issue.
The final report on the retail pilot draws four lessons. A retail CBDC supports both online and offline use and makes programmable payments possible. As open infrastructure, it would be accessible to nonbank providers, not just banks. It would add a layer of resilience alongside existing rails. The Bank of Thailand considers the results positive from an innovation standpoint, but has made no decision to issue.
Banks, wallets, and acquiring: who you need to know
Thailand’s banking sector is concentrated, and access to payment rails goes through a handful of institutions. Four of them appear in almost every national initiative: Bangkok Bank (BBL), Kasikornbank (KBANK), Siam Commercial Bank (SCB), and Krungthai Bank (KTB). Bank of Ayudhya (BAY, Krungsri group) and TMBThanachart (TTB) round out the group. These banks run local switching, the PromptBiz pilots, and the cross-border links.
In Thailand, government transfers to households go through the app of a state-owned commercial bank. The government reaches recipients through a wallet linked to a commercial bank account, not through central bank infrastructure. Using a commercial bank as the distribution channel for public benefits is rare. The THB 10,000 digital wallet program has used this channel, paying successive groups of recipients since 2024.
- A Thai bank account comes first: without a local account there is no PromptPay alias, and so no way to accept domestic QR payments in your own name.
- Wallets are not interchangeable: TrueMoney is part of the CP Group’s convenience retail ecosystem, while Paotang is the government channel.
- Card acquiring is negotiated separately from QR: a single PSP contract often hides two very different fee schedules.
- Check your partner’s license: designated payment services require a license or registration, as detailed below.
Tourism and foreign cards: where acceptance breaks down
International tourism is a macroeconomic pillar in Thailand, and taking payments from tourists runs up against the way PromptPay is addressed. The rail’s aliases rely on a Thai national ID, a local mobile number, or a bank account opened in the country. Foreign visitors have none of these. They show up at the counter with their bank’s app, a foreign e-wallet, and sometimes a payment card.
Inbound QR links cover some of these visitors and create an imbalance depending on where they come from. Visitors from Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Korea, Hong Kong, or China can pay in Thailand with their home app. Visitors from Europe, the US, or Australia have no such corridor. They pay by card, in cash, or with money from an ATM. Foreign-issued cards and ATM withdrawals both carry fees that domestic QR payments do not.
- Accepting visitors from a connected country: display a Thai QR code issued by a bank that is actually connected to the relevant corridor. Coverage varies across the banks that issue the codes.
- Accepting Western visitors: a card acquiring contract with contactless, and a separate fee schedule for cards issued outside Thailand.
- Displaying prices: prices must be shown in baht; letting the terminal steer the currency choice shifts the dispute onto the merchant.
- Accepting online payments from abroad: use a licensed local PSP that offers PromptPay, wallets, and cards under one contract.
Bank of Thailand licenses and compliance requirements
The Payment Systems Act B.E. 2560 (2017) governs payment systems and payment services in Thailand. It was published in the Royal Gazette on October 18, 2017, and took effect on April 16, 2018. It consolidated oversight that had been spread across several laws and several authorities, and it sorts activities into three categories with very different consequences. Licenses are granted by the Minister of Finance on the Bank of Thailand’s recommendation. Registration is with the central bank.
| Category | What it covers | Requirement |
|---|---|---|
| Highly important payment systems | BAHTNET and ICAS | Neither license nor registration: run by the central bank |
| Designated payment systems | Retail funds transfer systems, payment card networks, settlement systems, and any system affecting the public interest or payment stability | License from the Minister of Finance or registration with the Bank of Thailand |
| Designated payment services | Credit, debit, or ATM card services; e-money; collecting payments on behalf of others; electronic funds transfers; any service affecting the payment system or the public interest | License from the Minister of Finance or registration with the Bank of Thailand |
Collecting payments on behalf of others is one of the payment services designated by the act. Any platform that receives funds and passes them on to a seller, a service provider, or a creditor falls within scope, whatever its volume. A foreign marketplace that collects in baht and pays out to Thai sellers is in exactly this position, so its status under the act must be settled before the service launches, not after. Safeguarding of funds and the related capital requirements follow the e-money regime.
- Map your regulatory status before technical integration: designated service, designated system, or out of scope. The answer drives the entire project timeline.
- Plan for freezes on notification: suspensions triggered by the technology crime center must be executable within the required deadlines, not left to tier 1 support.
- Document the onboarding flow: account opening and alias assignment are where mule accounts enter the system.
- Track regulatory changes: Thai oversight combines the Payment Systems Act, the technology crime decree, and the digital asset regime, each amended on its own schedule.
Describing the Thai market from card data alone gives a distorted picture of how it works. Debit cards there are used mainly for cash withdrawals rather than payments, and debit made up only 5.5% of card payment value in 2025, according to GlobalData. Retail payments run mostly on account-to-account transfers, which PromptPay pushed to 27.4 billion transactions in 2025. An international comparison based on cards alone therefore misses most Thai payments.