State of open banking Thailand 2025

Key observations

• Bank of Thailand’s “3 Opens” strategy promotes competition, infrastructure sharing, and data access as pillars of an inclusive digital finance future =

• PromptPay’s success established the technical and cultural groundwork for open banking, with momentum shifting from payments to data sharing and embedded finance 

• Open data consultations began in 2024, with BOT drafting standards around consumer-permissioned account data access, operational guidelines, and compliance structures

• API portals launched by leading banks (SCB, KBank, Krungsri, BBL) offer access to balances, transfers, FX rates, and merchant services—but primarily support internal partners, not yet full TPP ecosystems 

• Virtual banking licenses opening in 2025, enabling new digital-first banks to operate with tech-native models and strong data governance 

• Ecosystem expansion includes partnerships like SCBX-WeBank, LINE forming social-banking synergies, and Gulf-AIS exploring virtual banks

Thailand’s Open Banking Momentum in 2025: Unlocking the Next Wave of Digital Financial Services

Thailand’s financial sector has undergone significant digital transformation over the past decade. In 2025, that evolution is reaching a critical milestone as open banking begins to take deeper root—not through sweeping mandates, but through progressive frameworks, regulatory experimentation, and strong private-sector innovation.

Thailand’s open banking trajectory is unique. Unlike countries where data-sharing frameworks were rolled out through strict compliance timelines (like the EU or Australia), Thailand is orchestrating its strategy around enabling infrastructure, real-time payment systems, and broader financial inclusion goals. Open banking in Thailand isn’t a single policy—it’s an ecosystem shift.

Setting the Stage: The “3 Opens” Strategy

The Bank of Thailand (BOT) continues to anchor financial innovation around its “3 Opens” framework: Open Competition, Open Infrastructure, and Open Data. This strategic direction, introduced several years ago, underpins Thailand’s financial modernization agenda.

Open banking, specifically, sits within the Open Data pillar. It’s not yet a mandatory framework, but it’s becoming more defined through collaboration, experimentation, and new licensing models. The BOT’s intention is to create a balanced, interoperable, and trusted ecosystem—rather than racing toward compliance-heavy rollouts.

PromptPay: A Cultural Shift in Real-Time Payments

Thailand’s open banking momentum can’t be separated from the success of PromptPay, its real-time payment system. Introduced in 2017, PromptPay changed the way consumers and businesses send and receive money—using phone numbers, citizen IDs, and QR codes for instant transactions.

Today, PromptPay underlies more than 35 billion transactions annually. Its ubiquity has familiarized Thais with digital-first, API-enabled financial experiences. It’s the cultural foundation that makes the next phase—open APIs for data and service access—possible.

In many ways, PromptPay taught Thailand to trust digital finance. Now, that trust is extending to consent-based data sharing, secure authentication, and embedded finance.

Evolution Through Experimentation: Regulatory Sandboxes

Thailand’s regulatory ecosystem supports innovation through multiple sandbox types:

• Regulatory Sandboxes (overseen by BOT): Test regulated products with supervision and risk controls

• Own Regulatory Sandboxes (managed by financial institutions): Internal testing environments for pre-approved innovation

• Enhanced Regulatory Sandboxes: Cross-functional, jointly monitored spaces that test policy-technology interaction

Many of the current open banking use cases in Thailand—such as programmable payments, eKYC innovations, and QR-based services—were born in these sandboxes. They allow stakeholders to trial ideas before formal regulation.

The BOT uses feedback from these environments to shape future guidelines. Rather than imposing regulation upfront, it studies what works, where risks emerge, and how market behavior evolves.

2025 Milestone: Virtual Banking Licenses

One of the most important developments in 2025 is the issuance of virtual banking licenses. BOT has selected several consortia to operate digital-native banks, following its multi-phase application and evaluation process.

These virtual banks are not mere online versions of traditional banks. They’re expected to:

• Operate API-first architectures

• Serve underbanked and underserved segments

• Integrate financial services into non-financial ecosystems

• Deliver personalized experiences using AI and behavioral data

Virtual banks bring open banking into sharper focus—not just as a compliance matter, but as a commercial imperative. These entities will rely on partnerships, embedded finance strategies, and open API rails to scale.

Notable consortia include:

• SCBX and WeBank (China): A consumer finance-focused model with strong AI capabilities

• Gulf Energy & AIS Group: Exploring digital infrastructure plus telecom-finance convergence

• LINE BK and KB Financial (Korea): Social commerce banking with a LINE-first user base

These players are expected to set new benchmarks in open finance interoperability, service personalization, and partner integration.

Where Are Thai Banks Today on Open APIs?

Several of Thailand’s top-tier banks have launched developer portals and exposed APIs for third-party integration, although access remains selective and controlled:

• SCB Developer Portal: Offers APIs for fund transfers, account inquiry, QR code payments, and currency exchange

• Krungsri APIX: A sandbox and developer environment offering payment and personal finance APIs

• KBank API Gateway: Supports real-time payments, merchant onboarding, and FX

However, these APIs are mostly used in closed partner arrangements—insurance platforms, ecommerce sites, travel apps—not in the broader TPP (third-party provider) model seen in Europe.

Open banking in Thailand, at present, is more strategic than systemic. It is driven by business cases rather than mandatory standards.

Embedded Finance: The Quiet Engine of Growth

Open banking isn’t just about data portability—it’s about enabling embedded finance. In Thailand, this concept is gaining traction across sectors:

• Ride-hailing platforms offer driver loans and instant payouts through bank APIs

• Ecommerce marketplaces provide merchant financing and installment payments

• Utilities and telcos integrate subscription payments via recurring debit APIs

These experiences don’t announce themselves as “open banking”—but they rely on it. Thailand’s open API strategy is happening in the background, powering invisible, intuitive financial journeys.

Security & Digital ID: Essential Building Blocks

In early 2025, the BOT, ETDA, and the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society released new anti-fraud and identity assurance guidelines. These were in response to increasing fraud and mule account activity.

Key focus areas:

• eKYC standards: Biometrics, device binding, and facial recognition requirements

• Mule account detection: Pattern recognition and account activity audits

• Digital ID authentication: Tied to national ID and mobile number registries

Secure digital identity is the backbone of consent-based open banking. Without strong authentication and fraud prevention, data sharing becomes a risk. Thailand is investing in these safeguards as prerequisites for scaling open finance.

Cross-Border Ambitions: ASEAN QR Integration

Thailand is a founding participant in the ASEAN QR Code Payment Initiative, which connects PromptPay with QR schemes in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and more.

By 2025, Thai tourists can scan to pay in Indonesia using PromptPay. Likewise, Malaysian and Singaporean users can shop in Thailand using DuitNow or PayNow. These integrations hint at what regional open banking could look like—interoperable, real-time, and consumer-centric.

There’s growing interest in aligning digital ID, payment rails, and API standards across ASEAN. Thailand’s PromptPay infrastructure and sandbox agility position it as a leader in this regional conversation.

Key Open Banking Use Cases Emerging in 2025

Several use cases are gaining momentum this year:

1. Pay by Bank / QR API Payments

Merchants and platforms are beginning to offer QR-based Pay by Bank options that eliminate the need for cards or cash.

2. Digital Lending with API-Driven Underwriting

Bank APIs (income verification, account insights) are being used by BNPL and SME lenders to build real-time credit models.

3. Subscription Management and Auto-Debit APIs

Recurring payments for mobile, electricity, insurance, and OTT platforms are increasingly authorized via secure bank mandates.

4. Account Aggregation for Personal Finance Apps

Thai startups are building budgeting tools that connect to multiple bank accounts and spending categories—helping users better manage daily cash flow.

5. Gig Worker Financial Services

APIs are enabling real-time payouts, micro-insurance, and expense management for ride-hailing and delivery workers.

These use cases are laying the groundwork for full-scale open finance.

Challenges: What’s Holding Thailand Back?

Despite the momentum, several challenges remain:

• Lack of a single regulatory mandate: No formal “Open API” or “TPP licensing” framework yet exists

• Selective API exposure: Banks still limit access to trusted commercial partners

• Legacy infrastructure: Core systems in many banks were not built for real-time API orchestration

• Consumer awareness: Most users are unaware of what open banking means or how to manage data consent

• Cross-institutional consent: No centralized consent dashboard for users to view or revoke third-party data access

Until these issues are resolved, open banking will remain fragmented and opportunistic rather than universal.

What’s Next: Looking Beyond 2025

The next 12–24 months will be pivotal. Several developments could push open banking forward:

1. BOT's Open Data Framework: Expected to become more formal, with guidelines for standardization, data rights, and third-party access

2. Virtual Bank Launches: These entities will demonstrate what truly API-first, data-driven banking can look like

3. Consent Management Standards: Industry-wide tools for managing, tracking, and revoking data sharing

4. Open API Registries: Publicly accessible catalogs of available banking APIs, endpoints, and use policies

5. Cross-border API pilots: Joint projects across ASEAN to trial open finance interoperability

Thailand is not building open banking to check a box. It’s building it to unlock smarter, more contextual, and more inclusive financial experiences.

Final Thoughts: Quiet Revolution, Big Impact

Thailand’s approach to open banking in 2025 is distinct. It’s not driven by regulation alone, but by partnerships, payment rails, sandbox learnings, and a vision for digital inclusion.

What’s emerging is a quiet revolution—where open banking is not a front-page announcement, but the hidden engine behind ride-hailing disbursements, e-commerce lending, QR-enabled payments, and financial wellness apps.

Thailand’s open banking story is not about compliance. It’s about capability. The groundwork has been laid. The virtual banks are coming. The APIs are opening. The future is being coded—collaboratively, securely, and steadily.

And that, more than anything, is how open banking should scale.