Five contestants vying for three virtual bank licences
Applicants include SCB, BTS and a conglomerate headed by Gulf Energy, with the Bank of Thailand expected to announce the winners next year
Five companies and joint ventures have applied to establish a virtual bank in Thailand after the Bank of Thailand (BOT) opened applications in March, a news source from the central bank said on Tuesday.
Applications close on September 19 and the BOT will then select three qualified operators to run the country’s first virtual banks. The result is expected to be announced by June.
The BOT plans to introduce virtual banks – a new type of commercial bank – for the first time next year by granting three licences. The central bank argued that the number was suitable to ensure the domestic financial market’s stability and protect depositors from risks associated with new businesses.
The first contestant is SCB X, a financial arm of Siam Commercial Bank, which joined with foreign virtual bank operators China’s WeBank and South Korea’s KakaoBank to further strengthen its candidacy.
The second contestant is a joint venture of energy conglomerate Gulf Energy Development (GULF), telecom giant Advanced Info Service (AIS) and Krungthai Bank Plc (KTB). They boast a substantial client base of over 100 million users from combined customers of KTB and AIS.
Thailand’s largest private company Charoen Pokphand (CP) Group is also in the race for one of the three virtual bank licences. CP plans to harness the large client base from its True Money platform, and is backed by China’s biggest financial investment company Ant Group.
The fourth group that recently made an announcement to apply for the licence is BTS Group Holdings, which aims to appoint its subsidiary VGI as the virtual bank operator. It is speculated that BTS would harness the financial prowess of its partner Bangkok Bank to help in this new business endeavor.
The last contestant is believed to be e-commerce giant Shopee from Singapore, though the company has not made an official announcement yet, said the source.
Considered the largest e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia with 343 million monthly visitors, Shopee operator Sea Group was also licenced to operate Sea Digital Bank in Singapore.
BOT’s criteria for virtual bank operators include being a public limited company with a Thailand head office, and able to begin operating within one year. The operator must have a registered capital of at least 5 billion baht, and must increase that to 10 billion baht within five years.
After obtaining approval from the finance minister, the successful applicants are required to make necessary preparations, such as information technology systems and risk management tools, so that their virtual banks can start operating by June 2026.
