Witai Ratanakorn, Governor of the Bank of Thailand, said at the ZERO Corruption event hosted by the Joint Standing Committee on Commerce, Industry and Banking and its allies on 1 October that the Bank of Thailand is accelerating structural fixes in four areas of finance: household debt, SME access to credit, fair access to the financial system, and the twin problems of grey money and corruption. The approach is to create financial chokepoints that make illegal transactions harder, from opening accounts and transferring money to withdrawing cash and converting funds into financial assets, through KYC, CDD and EDD measures. The central bank also plans to issue rules barring payment service providers from serving grey capital groups and online gambling sites, with publication in the Royal Gazette expected next week. Cash withdrawal controls take effect from 1 April 2026, under which withdrawals above 1 million baht must go through a due diligence process and the purpose must be explained. The Bank of Thailand, together with the Anti-Money Laundering Office, has drawn up 24 suspicious transaction patterns and requires the names of transacting parties to be reported when withdrawals are used to buy more than 2 kilograms of gold, worth roughly 10 million baht. Authorities also found unusual USDT trading over the past four to five months, with a total value of several hundred billion baht. The Bank of Thailand and the Securities and Exchange Commission investigated and found patterns of cash withdrawals or transfers used to buy USDT before the funds were sent abroad under other people's names, which may be linked to money laundering. After the measures were introduced, cash withdrawals above 1 million baht fell by more than 50%, from about 100 billion baht a month to about 50 billion baht a month, while gold withdrawals through applications and withdrawals of more than 2 kilograms of gold dropped by more than 70%. At the same time, the Bank of Thailand, the Thai Bankers' Association and 11 other associations signed a declaration of intent not to allow the financial sector to be used as a tool for breaking the law, setting out clear duties for each agency.
TetherBank of Thailand flags unusual USDT trading worth hundreds of billions of baht possibly linked to money laundering and plans rules restricting payment providers, increasing regulatory scrutiny on Tether's USDT.
