Mr.Uttama Savanayana, Minister of Finance of the Kingdom of Thailand, along with Mr.Theeraj Athanavanich, Bond Market Advisor, and Mr.Payong Srivanich, CEO of Krung Thai Bank, recently gathered to announce the launch of their SBM Wallet. The main purpose of this new digital wallet is to facilitate and simplify financial services as well as promote inclusivity for Thai citizens’ accessibility to government-issued bonds.
The e-wallet is set to be a pilot project, built on top of the previously developed ‘Pao Tung’ multi-currency and open-source wallet for the distribution and sale of government-issued bonds via an e-wallet. With the goal of creating a future-proof financial system that is fast, secure, efficient, transparent, and low in cost, the project chose blockchain technology that was pre-developed by the MOF Blockchain initiative launched back in 2019.
The Minister of Finance has reiterated that the launch of this new financial platform is a crucial step to push government-issue bonds into a digital assets sphere. The technology behind the project will allow work processes to speed up by cutting down unnecessary procedures. Moreover, the e-Document will further reduce the cost and physical contact when purchasing the bonds.
SBM Wallet is supported and co-developed by the Bank of Thailand (BoT) and Thailand Securities Depository (TSD). In the near future, there will be an integration with the equities market infrastructure, currently overseen by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), to support both primary and secondary market securities.
Mr. Uttama further revealed that the digitalization of the bond allows citizens to buy bonds at smaller units. Traditionally, the minimum purchase would be equal to one bond ticket or 1,000 Thai Baht, but the new technology opened up the possibility of having a smaller bond unit, cutting the minimum purchase to only 100 Thai Baht.
Furthermore, the e-wallet also acts as a one-stop-service replacing the traditional Book Bond. Whether it be an online KYC, money deposit, transaction history, as well as the request of any related documents, all of this can be completed directly on the application.
Along with the launch of the e-wallet, the Ministry of Finance has introduced a new SBM Wallet proprietary three-year bond for Thai citizens aged over 15 years old. The bond will offer 1.70% annual interest rate with the purchasing limit from 100 – 500,000 Thai Baht per person. The sales will begin on 24 June 2020 at 08:30 AM local time. Citizens can download the e-wallet application and complete the KYC from 19 June 2020 onwards.
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