Thailand is moving rapidly towards a digital life, driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, and forecasts that more than half of the Thai consumers are now accustomed to contactless payments.
In order for businesses to thrive, NTT DATA (Thailand), a subsidiary of NTT DATA Corporation and a global digital business and IT service leader, recommends switching to the e-payment system as soon as possible to accommodate customer needs, as well as upgrading technology and proactively seeking to improve payment experience for customers with data protection and security that can protect against cybercrime.
To this end, it supports the building of an e-payment ecosystem for secure digital payment innovation for banks, its current customers, with a plan to expand to other industries in the future with global solutions, to ensure that Thai businesses are well equipped for the digital world.
Hironari Tomioka, President and CEO of NTT DATA (Thailand) Co., Ltd., said that Thailand is moving rapidly towards a digital life. The COVID-19 pandemic has driven the growth of various digital platforms that lead to contactless payments, allowing people to make transactions – shopping, paying or transferring money – via channels such as mobile payment, PromptPay transfer, or QR code cross border payment (international transactions) easily.
Thailand was one of the first countries in the world to have developed a central payment standard, known as Thai QR Payment, that enables various forms of payment.
According to the Bank of Thailand, e-payment has gained popularity in Thailand recently due to internet and mobile banking transactions that have grown by over 72%, with the number of PromptPay transfers reaching a maximum of 28.6 million transactions daily (as of April 2021).
Use of e-payment is expected to continue to increase rapidly this year due to the ongoing pandemic and consumers’ growing familiarity with e-payment in the current context. This is in line with international data released in the 2021 Digital Global Overview Report, which found that Thailand ranked one of the first countries in the world for mobile making users in 2020, up approximately 70% from 2019.
However, these factors can be seen as a crisis turned into an opportunity. The business sector has been able to turn the tables and leap forward with success by offering services that have adapted to consumers’ behavior, now more oriented to a digital life.
A more important issue is to create a fast and secure payment experience for customers. In recent times, industries such as banking, finance, insurance, retail, telecommunications and basic infrastructure such as water and electricity providers have recognized the importance of e-payment and invested significantly in e-payment systems to enable contactless or cashless payments, making transactions easier than ever.
“When investing in an e-payment system to boost business opportunities, a whole ecosystem should be developed to enable secure digital payment innovation. Attention should be paid from designing a structure, planning system development to strategies to promote use that can truly meet users’ needs.
There should be flexibility for system upgrades with new technologies that will continue to correspond to lifestyles and create better payment experience for customers. For this, seamless connection between front end and back end is essential, as is the ability to forecast capacity, protection of customer data and maximum system security to prevent against cyberattacks.
This will create confidence and credibility for business and services, ensure data security for customers and prevent negative impacts and significant loss in terms of image, as well as to business and services.
Hironari adds that NTT DATA (Thailand) provides payment solutions for business, facilitating customers with a front-end system that accommodates contactless payment in all forms, whether mobile payment, PromptPay cashless transfer, or cross-border QR payment.
Its services include consulting, developing insights, providing recommendations and strategic planning. Experienced staff are at the ready to help with implementation, procurement of efficient systems or technology solutions from global partners, provision of after-installation customer care, co-development and expansion of systems as well training users to enhance the skills of personnel in the organization.
Its customers are predominantly in the banking and financial sector. The Company currently has plans to expand its customer base to other industries, non-bank financial companies with the potential to provide financial services to consumers, as well as other industries looking to develop contactless payment systems.
