Thailand’s Payments Evolution: A mix of payment methods adopted by consumers

Author: Norman Frankel, Chief Growth Officer, Stanchion Payments Solutions

Late November 2025 and following the Singapore Fintech Festival, I had an opportunity to visit Bangkok, Thailand.  We had already held online meetings with the Schemes that advised the market was embracing digital issuing and would likely accelerate in 2026 if the Central Bank took some further anticipated actions.

Thailand has a population of 72 million people, with a high urban contingent, and its capital, Bangkok, has about 5.5m inhabitants, although its wider metropolitan area has 18 million.  

Stanchion has been blessed to have the aegis of the Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade). Austrade is the commercial development agency of the Australian Government.  In Thailand, I had the support of Pannalak Lieokomol, who was instrumental in helping us to set up a potential local partner, which is a key requirement in the region to successfully develop your business. She was able to also secure several meetings with bank issuers. 

The article below aims to give the reader a sense of what is happening in Bangkok, the capital city, and Thailand in terms of both economic development and also the local payments industry. To learn more please read on.

Bangkok: From Historic Trading Outpost to Dynamic Powerhouse

Bangkok has evolved from a modest trading outpost into Thailand’s dynamic economic powerhouse, while the country pursues ambitious growth strategies amid global challenges. Government initiatives emphasise digital payment transformation to fuel a cashless economy, with retail payments shifting rapidly toward mobile solutions by late 2025.

Bangkok emerged as the capital under King Rama I in the late 18th century, strategically located along the Chao Phraya River to facilitate trade in rice, teak and spices. By the 20th century, it had become a manufacturing and tourism hub, with post-WWII industrialisation drawing rural migrants and foreign investment. Today, it accounts for over 50% of Thailand’s GDP, driven by services, finance and logistics.

Rapid urbanisation in the last 30 years has transformed Bangkok into Southeast Asia’s most visited city, but challenges like flooding and inequality persist. Its future hinges on sustainable infrastructure, including high-speed rail links to the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC).

Thailand’s Economic Growth Plans: Fiscal Discipline and Digital Ambitions

Thailand matured earlier than many of the other Southeast Asian markets, and the growth rate reflects this, with Thailand’s economy growing by 2.5% in 2024. And despite export slowdowns and a strong baht, the country still managed >2% growth in 2025. Growth challenges are on the horizon with weakening projections for 2026 around 1.6%, per Bank of Thailand and IMF forecasts, constrained by US tariffs and weak global demand.

​Tourism remains key to the nation as it can add 0.2-0.3% to GDP via consumer spending, but given the macroeconomic outlook, the Government’s 2026 budget prioritises fiscal discipline alongside investments in EVs and biotech. Under the Thailand 4.0 strategy, a major investment is the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) which seeks to transform the eastern seaboard into a major economic hub for technology, innovation and logistics such as airports, deep sea ports and high-speed rail.  If achieved, this strategic trade and investment gateway could help Thailand sustain 3%+ long-term growth.

​Thailand 4.0 Phase 1 (2023 to end 2025) well underway includes digital telecom infrastructure like 5G and open banking APIs to enable seamless transactions. Policies incentivise banks to digitise 90% of payments by 2027, reducing cash reliance from 50% in 2020 to under 20% by 2027.  Phase 2 (2026-2028) continues with ASEAN neighbour cross-border linkages and CBDC pilots.

Thailand’s National Digital Payment Strategy targets full cashless adoption by 2028, building on PromptPay, which was launched in 2017 and had over 70 million users in 2025. The Bank of Thailand (BOT) mandates QR code standards and promotes cross-border real-time payments via ASEAN initiatives. Today, interoperable QR payments across South-East Asia work with near real time settlement to merchants as an account-to-account transfer. Led by Government and avoiding card rails, this has caused income challenges for banks and schemes that had traditionally relied on card rails and associated card income fees.

The Retail Payments Industry: Doubling down on Digitalisation

The Bank of Thailand (BOT) leads efforts to reduce cash dependency through mandated, standardised QR codes across banks and e-wallets, real-time payment systems and open banking APIs. PromptPay already forms the backbone with its 70+ million users, enabling instant transfers via mobile numbers or IDs at no cost to individuals.  Incentives exist for merchants to adopt dynamic/static QR codes so that 90% retail adoption is achieved by 2027. The strategy integrates open banking to allow third-party access to transaction data, fostering fintech innovation while ensuring data privacy via PDPA compliance.

​Further Government subsidies then support digital wallet top-ups for low-income groups, extended into 2026, injecting stimulus while promoting usage.

​Already these digitisation investments exceed US$3 billion in digital rails, including NET-BAY for high-value settlements and BI-FAST for retail instant payments now processing over one billion transactions monthly (2025). Amid an 88% consumer preference on the back of all these incentives for instant payments, security features include biometric authentication, AI fraud detection and tokenisation to curb rising cyber risks.  For 2026 the focus is on the below initiatives:

Initiative	Timeline	Target Impact
PromptPay Expansion	2026	80M+ users, 50% retail share
Open Banking APIs	2026 roll-out	40% fintech integration
CBDC Pilot	Q3 2026	Test 10% gov’t disbursements

​By 2028, these plans project 15-20% annual digital payment growth, cutting transaction costs by 30% and boosting GDP by 1-2% through efficiency gains.

In Bangkok, merchants will lead adoption of QR Phayurai, whilst in rural areas roll-out will be via agent networks handling $46 billion in gross merchandise value.

The Impact of these digital initiatives meant that digital payments had surged 13.5% year-on-year (to mid-2025), with PromptPay registrations up 14% and mobile banking volumes rising 10.6%. This did mean that credit and debit card usage dipped as consumers began to favour especially mobile wallets and e-wallets like TrueMoney and ShopeePay.

By mid-2025 the payment usage in Thailand looked as below:

​Payment Method	Market Share	YoY Growth Rate
PromptPay/QRs	45%	+14%
Mobile Wallets	30%	+ 13.5%
Cards	15%	2%
Cash	10%	15%

​

Card Issuing and Usage

In Thailand, over 50 million cards had been issued by end-2025, with major banks like SCB, Kasikornbank and Krungsri dominating 60-70% of the market.  The mix is dominated by credit cards (55% of total) leading owing to rewards programmes, followed by debit (40%) prevalent for ATM withdrawals (still 20-25% of volume), while non-smart cards held 45% market share amid gradual NFC upgrades and charge/prepaid (5%).  Data breaks down as follows:

​Card Type	Issuance Share	Transaction Value Share	YoY Growth
Credit Cards	55%	68%	+2%-3%
Debit Cards	45%	27%	+1%
Charge/Prepaid Cards	5%	5%	Flat

Usage splits reached $65.6 billion in value (up 7.1% YoY), but volume growth slowed to 2-3% as e-wallets captured online share (34% online vs 66% POS). Credit cards handle 65-70% of card transaction value off about 36 annual transactions reflecting middle-income growth and instalment plans. Debit cards are at 25-30%, which stems from financial inclusion efforts like agent banking, though most transactions are limited to withdrawals rather than payments. Domestic spending via Thai-issued cards at 68%, foreign-issued at 16%, overseas Thai card use at 8%, and cash advances at 7%. There has also been a decline in physical cards, and virtual cards grew 20% to claim 30% of all new card issuance. Contactless and QR-linked cards drove 80% of urban transactions, with Bangkok at 75% penetration.

Digitalisation reached 75%, featuring tokenisation and contactless NFC.  Bank of Thailand data shows 40% of cards now support digital wallets, aligning with a shift to “card-on-file” for e-commerce. Issuance focused on premium tiers for tourism recovery. Whilst Cross-border PromptPay expansion and CBDC pilots target 50% transaction digitalisation.

Looking to 2026, it is anticipated that embedded finance in super-apps will dominate, with AI-driven fraud detection mandatory.  A potential 15% growth in BNPL schemes and open banking to spur fintech lending is predicted. Overall, Bangkok’s role as a digital hub will intensify, with $50 billion e-economy projections. On the card front there could be a 1% volume CAGR through 2032, with virtual/embedded cards rising 20% owing to both super-apps and tokenisation. POS expansion (13,500+ terminals per million) will help accelerate contactless usage to 85%. Regulatory caps on minimum payments (8%) may temper spending, favouring digital wallets over physical cards.

​Despite the headwinds driven by the approach to digitalisation there is still forecast growth of 9.3% CAGR for Thailand Card Payments (2025–2029) to reach over $100 billion by 2029 from a 2025 base of $65 billion.

​The leading issuers by market share in Thailand include Siam Commercial Bank (25-30%), driven by its extensive rewards ecosystem and digital wallet integrations. Kasikornbank (20-25%), excelling in premium credit cards for tourism and e-commerce spending, then Krungthai Card (KTC) (10-14%), dominating JCB cards at over 50% share and growing personal loans alongside cards.

​Issuer	Credit Card Share	Total Cards Share	Key Strength
SCB X	28%	25-30%	Digital apps, rewards
Kasikornbank	22%	20 – 25%	Premium/tourism
Krungthai Card (KTC)	14%	10 – 14%	JCB dominance
Bangkok Bank	10%	8-10%	Prepaid/debit
Krungsri/Ayudhya	8%	7-9%	Non-bank partnerships

​Other Notable Players include Bank of Ayudhya (Krungsri) and Aeon Thana Sinsap held 7-10% combined, focusing on retail and instalment cards. Smaller players like UOB and TMBThanachart round out the top 10, with non-banks at 47-50% aggregate owing to specialised offerings.

Powering Thailand’s Payments Evolution with Stanchion

Thailand’s payments ecosystem has already gained high adoption of digital bank apps and has regulated for Google Wallet, SamsungPay, GarminPay to be in market so now stands at a pivotal moment.

Next milestones will be Apple Wallet entry at some point, potentially in 2026 to help drive tokenisation, token life-cycle management and digital card issuing, including one-time card issuance to help with the growth of eCommerce. Whilst the largest banks are ready, most mid-sized banks still need to gain this capability.

This is where Stanchion’s Payment Fabric can offer mid-size Thai banks a key advantage. Our modular and adaptive technology bridges the gap between legacy banking infrastructure and next-generation digital payment experiences. By enabling seamless integration across banking platforms, card networks and digital wallets, we empower financial institutions to innovate at speed, optimise costs and deliver the frictionless digital experiences that modern consumers expect.

To remain competitive, banks must invest in robust digital infrastructure, forge strategic partnerships and prioritise customer-centric solutions that match and augment the convenience of the QR programme. With a global footprint and deep APAC/Oceania market expertise, Stanchion is uniquely positioned to support this transition—helping banks build scalable, future-ready payment ecosystems that align with Thailand’s dynamic, mobile-first economy.

Stanchion is ready to collaborate and shape the future of payments with Thai Banks and Fintechs.  Over the next few months, we will seek to engage with and train an identified local partner and hold discussions with banks to explore whether they have the appetite to drive the next phase of digital payment change locally.