The Bank of Thailand said on Thursday that its Financial Institutions Policy Committee has approved draft rules bringing buy-now-pay-later lending under a dedicated licensing regime, with the framework due to take effect in the fourth quarter of 2026. Governor Vitai Ratanakorn, speaking at the Prachachat Business "Beyond ESG: Thailand Transition" seminar in Bangkok, said the central bank will open a public hearing on the draft before the end of September and finalise the rules thereafter. The regime will cap individual credit lines at 20,000 baht per borrower and restrict interest rates to a band of 15 to 20 per cent. Approximately six operators currently active in the Thai market will be required to obtain the new licence or cease trading.
The measure responds to rapid expansion in a segment that has operated largely outside the central bank's supervisory perimeter. Vitai said BNPL lending in Thailand has grown tenfold over the past four years, with the user base rising from 600,000 to six million people. He added that more than 45 per cent of young borrowers now take on their first debt through a BNPL product. The initiative forms part of a four-pillar structural agenda the central bank has pursued over the past ten months covering household debt, credit access for SMEs and retail borrowers, fairness in financial services, and illicit money and corruption.
LICENSING TERMS AND CONDUCT RESTRICTIONS
Under the draft, BNPL providers will need a dedicated BNPL licence, with the central bank concentrating its oversight on the credit provider rather than the merchant or platform. Minimum borrower age will be set within a range of 18 to 20 years.
Vitai framed the licensing condition in binary terms: operators that do not enter the system once the rules are published will not be permitted to continue in business. The central bank said existing operators, which it identified as around six major providers mostly lending for purchases on online platforms, will be given a transition period to prepare and apply for the licence.
EXTENDING OVERSIGHT ACROSS NON-BANKS
The BNPL framework sits alongside a parallel effort to deepen supervision of Thailand's non-bank financial sector, which comprises more than 3,600 operators across 24 business categories including personal loans, nano-finance, vehicle title lending, credit cards, payments, leasing and currency exchange. Non-banks account for 75 per cent of retail lending accounts and roughly 55 per cent of outstanding retail credit balances, exceeding the combined share of commercial banks and specialised financial institutions. Vitai said supervisory reviews identified operators charging interest and embedded fees of 25 to 33 per cent, and cases where linked e-wallet services pushed effective all-in rates as high as 35 per cent. The central bank intends to use data and artificial intelligence tools to monitor the segment.
The policy is being introduced against a backdrop of subdued growth — Vitai put expected 2026 GDP expansion at 2.3 per cent — with the policy rate held at 1.00 per cent, a level he described as low but appropriate for current conditions.