The Bank of Thailand has concluded the issue of commercial banks’ transaction fees and the new rates will be implemented after the New Year.
Banks claim they will each lose around 100 million baht in revenue a year and it will take a couple of years for them to be able to offset this loss.
Bank of Thailand Governor Tarisa Watanagase revealed results of her meeting with the Thai Bankers’ Association yesterday on transaction fees.
Same-bank ATM transfers across provinces will be free once a month but will be liable to fee of no more than 15 baht for the second time onwards.
The fee is currently at ten baht per 10,000 baht transferred.
Same-bank ATM withdrawals across provinces will be subject to fee of no more than 15 baht per transaction from the current ten baht per 10,000 baht withdrawn.
These two new fee rates will be put in place by the New Year.
New transaction fees that will be introduced in the second quarter of next year include cross-bank ATM withdrawals and balance inquiry in the same provincial grouping.
These services will be free for the first four times in a month but will cost ten baht for the next service on. They currently cost five baht for the fifth time onwards.
For interprovincial services, the transaction fee will be at 20 to 25 baht for the first four times and an additional five baht per transaction for the fifth time onwards.
Fee for interprovincial cross-bank ATM withdrawals will cost no more than 20 baht per transaction from the current ten baht per 10,000 baht and an increase of five baht per transaction is applied from the fifth time onwards.
For all transactions with a fee, clients will be informed of the charge on the ATM screen everytime so they are eligible to cancel the service before they are charged.
The central bank governor thanked all the banks for their cooperation.
She remarked that even though the new transaction fees will cut into banks’ profits, in the long term they will benefit from the rising number of ATM users.
Thai Bankers’ Association President Chartsiri Sophonpanich, also Bangkok Bank president, said each bank will feel different effects from the changes but each should see a loss in revenue of 100 million baht a year.
He said it should be a couple of years before banks can recoup the loss with other kinds of revenue.
