The Bank of Thailand has issued a notification setting out rules and practices for foreign exchange, tightening the requirements for documentary evidence when purchasing or accepting deposits of foreign currency originating abroad from customers who are residents of Thailand, so that transactions serve trade and investment and match the stated purpose. For funds from general purposes such as payment for goods and services, direct investment, investment in foreign securities, or loans, documentary evidence of the source of the foreign currency must be requested on a per-transaction basis if the value is 200,000 US dollars or more, except for customers who have undergone customer due diligence, or KYB. For funds from watchlist purposes, namely investment in Thai real estate, proceeds from digital assets, other funds that are not investment in affiliates, investment in securities, loans and lending, and margin from derivative transactions, as well as funds from other purposes that are not goods, services, income, and transfers and donations, investment, baht banknotes and deposit accounts, documentary evidence of the source of the foreign currency must be requested on a per-transaction basis if the value is 200,000 US dollars or more, and the KYB process cannot be used in place of requesting documents. For funds from gold, supporting documents for the transaction must be requested for every amount, and in the case of transferring gold payments into the country in baht through the baht account of a non-resident, documents must likewise be requested for every amount. As for foreign currency in cash, purchases are permitted of no more than 15,000 US dollars per day; beyond that, documents must be requested showing that the foreign currency was brought into the country, or documentary evidence showing that it was obtained from a foreign exchange payment business operator. The acceptance of foreign currency deposits into foreign currency deposit accounts shall be treated the same as the purchase of foreign currency as an immediate transaction in each of the cases above. The Bank of Thailand has also revised the guidelines for commercial banks relating to foreign currency transactions and the requesting of documents to bring them into line, and this notification takes effect from the day after its publication in the Royal Gazette.
Bank of Thailand tightens documentation on inbound foreign-currency transfers, including gold and crypto-related flows, which supports the baht by curbing speculative inflows.
