One would be hard pressed to find any market in East Asia except the Philippines where startups are major digital banking players. In one jurisdiction after the next, regulators have ensured that incumbent lenders and in some cases large technology companies win the requisite licenses to operate online-only banks.
After biding its time on digital banking for several years, Thailand is following in its neighbors’ footsteps, setting capitalization requirements and other hurdles that will likely eliminate scrappy upstarts from the application process. In its own words, the Bank of Thailand (BoT) requires that “major shareholders of the virtual bank must demonstrate the capability and commitment to provide oversight and adequate funding to the virtual bank.” Most startups are unlikely to have adequate funding.
Further, the digital banks…
