For several years, industry insiders have discussed that Thailand needs branchless banks, or Virtual Banks, to serve underserved groups lacking adequate financial services. The Bank of Thailand (BOT) expects this new licensing scheme to foster competition, resulting in better or entirely new products and services for Thailand.
Thairath Money provides updates on all developments concerning Virtual Banks, along with an analysis of the new offerings Thai consumers might soon access.
Going back to June 2025, the Ministry of Finance announced the approved candidates to establish Virtual Banks—three out of five applicants—as follows:
The key condition was that all three must establish and prepare according to criteria and begin operations within one year from approval (19 June 2025). Recently, BOT updated that two have requested a postponement to allow more time to comply with requirements. One expects to launch services by 2026, and the other by 2027.
Although Thai consumers may see new services from all three banks later than expected, each group is well-positioned to develop innovative offerings, given their existing banking businesses, payment systems, and large user bases exceeding tens of millions. For example, Ascend Money's TrueMoney app has over 34 million users.
Krung Thai Bank, when counting digital users across Krungthai NEXT app (17 million users), Pao Tang wallet (34 million users), and Thung Ngern (1.7 million merchants), surpasses 40 million users. SCB, the parent company of Siam Commercial Bank, has SCB Easy app with 18.1 million users and partnerships with Chinese and South Korean companies experienced in Virtual Banking in their countries.
They have both data and extensive banking and financial service experience. It remains to be seen how much the new services will differ from what Thais have encountered before.
Recently, news emerged that in June 2026, the first Virtual Bank to launch will be “ CLICX ” from the KTB, AIS, and OR group, promoting the concept of Bank in One. CLICX will be a platform connecting financial services with real-life needs.
It will focus on underserved customers who lack access to financial services—such as irregular income earners, online sellers, and SMEs—who face documentation and credit history limitations. It will use alternative data and AI to analyze and better assess customers’ repayment abilities, aiming to reduce informal debt and the shadow economy. Product details are not yet available, but a launch is expected in June 2026.
On this matter, KASIKORN Research Center anticipates that in the first three years, Thai Virtual Banks will focus on building customer bases through "deposits," possibly attracting customers with higher interest rates than traditional commercial banks. Later, they will expand into loans and investment products to generate primary revenues.
The reason for expecting Virtual Banks to initially focus on deposits comes from South Korea’s 2020 case study, where Virtual Bank deposits steadily increased to 27 trillion won, representing 2.1% of total commercial bank deposits. This followed the government issuing two Virtual Bank licenses in 2017.
In 2021, the government added a third Virtual Bank license, intensifying competition. The deposit share of these three Virtual Banks quadrupled to 110 trillion won, or 6.6% of total deposits. However, loan growth lagged because Virtual Banks remain cautious in lending based on individual borrower risk.
But if asked, how much higher are deposit rates at Virtual Banks in South Korea? Studies show they offer interest rates about 0.3% higher than traditional commercial bank deposit products. Loan interest rates remain close to market levels. Increasing loan access for underserved groups. In Singapore, alternative data combined with income and payment information from Grab and Singtel applications has been used to analyze credit risk. This approach has improved access to unsecured loans for underserved customers who previously had insufficient credit limits.
Moving forward, it will be important to watch how Virtual Banks compete in developing attractive financial products and accessing underserved groups effectively. Compared internationally, Thailand already has advanced payment systems and digital services, but the missing element is whether these quality services reach everyone. The main challenge is which alternative data outside the traditional financial system can effectively assess borrower risk as lenders require.
Sources:Bank of Thailand,,KBank,Ascend Money
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