BOT Limits Withdrawals

 The main key elements include:

Around the 9 March 2023 the Bank of Thailand pushed a notice entitled “ additional Measures to Strengthen  Mobile Banking” something down that line. This was the first stroke wjere the BOT limits withdrawals . Your mobile phone has to be connected to your bank account if you want to withdraw more then 50,000 THB per day. You can also apply for this in person. It’s a bit of a bother but it only needs to be done once. The bank gives you a small note to take to the mobile phone company. They then verify your ID or Passport to your phone and give you another note to give to the bank. You have now been verified.

The note from the BOT says that where you want to transfer more than 50,000 THB per day you must have facial recognition. So now you have biometric authentication. This is why the BOT limits withdrawals. 

Further in the note it says that each customer must have a risk profile. This profile determines how much you can send as well.

Then by mid-2025 the BOT released another note that there needs to be even stronger measures. They proposed a tier system for online or mobile banking. The tiers would be 50,000 THB then 20,000 THB depending on the risk profile. The BOT announced that banks after 19th August 2025 must set the initial limit at 50,000 THB per day. This was also limited to new accounts and certain unspecified accounts.  

Lastly the Bank of Thailand clarified that not everyone will have limited accounts. There is also a draft guidance issued with regards to digital assets and transfers which enters into the 50,000THB a day transfer limit. You can read on the crack down on crypto in Thailand on this website. This monitoring framework is there to stop fraud. This is another reason why the BOT limits withdrawals. 

Thus, the BOT is relying on its own regulatory supervision of payment systems, digital banking, and anti fraud/AML frameworks to mandate or encourage banks to impose or manage transfer limits based on risk. The banks have to set risk based limits, monitor transactions, apply biometric checks above given thresholds, and apply customer profiling for vulnerable groups. so the BOT limits withdrawals.

2. Rationale and policy drivers

There are clear drivers as to why the BOT initiated the transfer limits

Rapidly increasing digital banking fraud and scams: Reports show that in June 2025 alone, Thailand logged around 24,500 scam cases involving money transfers, with losses of THB 2.8 billion. Yes that was in one month. The average loss per case was THB 114,000 and fraudsters moved stolen funds extremely quickly (It took on average 3 minutes until half the funds where gone) making reactive recovery difficult.

Vulnerability of certain customer segments: The Bank of Thailand identified that children (< 15 years) and elderly persons (> 65 years). This age grouping accounted for a large volume of victims. They have less digital literacy and greater trust in callers. One of the many reason why the BOT limits withdrawals .

Need to slow fund flow: Part of the cap on transfers was exactly to stem the transfer of cash in large amounts. This is buying time for the scammers to be stopped. This before they move the money into mule accounts or move a large transfer into another account. This slows down the scammers and gives the bank the opportunity to freeze the scammers account.

Risk based regulation and KYC: The KYC (Know Your Customer) The new regime that the banks are looking at is to segment their customers by risk profile (black, dark grey, light grey accounts). They will conduct enhanced due diligence for higher risk clients as well as monitor mule accounts.

Digitization and mobile banking growth: Mobile phone transactions have grown very fast. Currently Thailand has about 12 million account out of a population of 65 million. The BOT has to increase oversight. These are some of the reasons why the BOT limits withdrawals.

In summary, the THB 50,000 daily limit is a policy tool — part of a broader framework — to manage fraud risk in a rapidly evolving digital banking environment, especially focusing on vulnerable users and new customers.

3. Scope, tiers and risk profiles

Note that the BOT’s guidance distinguishes between customer categories and risk tiers. This means that the 50,000 THB is not rigid and on all customers. The BOT limits withdrawals come with key features include:

Risk profile segmentation: If we look in the Media we see that the BOT divides users into three groups. There are suspected fraudsters, general users, and vulnerable customers (under 15 or over 65).

Tiered limits: The banks for online or mobile banking, tiers have been described as:

Tier S (“small”): Th daily limit under THB 50,000

Tier M (“medium”): The daily limit is under THB 200,000

Tier L (“large”): Lastly the daily limits are above THB 200,000

Application by customer transaction history: When you open a bank account as a new customer you will have a limited banking history. You may start at 50,000 THB per day until the account is verified and upgraded. The Bank of Thailand made it clear that people who regularly transfer 50,000 THB will receive higher limits.

Transactionspecific thresholds: There was the 2023 guidance which stated that a single single mobile banking transfer of THB 50,000 or more triggers biometric authentication. Also, when increasing daily limit to over THB 50,000, banks must conduct identity checks. The South African banking system already has face scanning when you use the app to transfer funds irrespective of the amount. They use the government database with ID and passport photos to further eliminate fraud.

Implementation timelines: The BOT has phased implementation. First would be new users and older users will be next by year end.

Thus the THB 50,000 figure is best understood as a baseline daily transfer cap for lowverification or vulnerable customers, subject to upgrade. It is not universal but fundamental to the BOT’s riskbased approach.

4. Implementation mechanics and bank obligations

The BOT’s guidance sets out several obligations for banks and other financial institutions (FIs). These are some key mechanics:

4.1 Customer risk profiling and KYC

Banks will have to assess their customers risk levels. These include the child and elderly users. They will need to look at their account history as well as their transaction patterns. The Know You customer becomes very important. At some point in time they more and likely implement AI to assess the transaction.

For Banks they will need to implement a category for higher risk customers. The banks will need to implement enhanced due diligence (EDD). This would be a need to verify the source of the funds and have on going monitoring and tracking the money through the financial system. BOT would need to implement such a system. Likewise with face scanning identification for high risk people.  

4.2 Transaction monitoring and limits

All mobile banking transfers of THB 50,000 or more per transaction. This will require biometric authentication. What we have now is only device Identification. The reason why your phone and SIM is liked to your identification. This is now as we don’t have Face Scanning yet. They might test that system on the identified group as under 15 or over 65 years old. This simply because it is a nuisance and they might be scammed less with this step. If its not an issue then roll it out of the middle class who are likely to moan about it as the photo ID does not always work well.

Daily transfer or the withdrawal limits must be set based on the customer’s risk profile. People under 15 or over 65 normally don’t transfer that type of money. Scammer might just lower the amounts to say 11,000 THB scam. This is where the tiers kick in. Example if you are 14 or 66 you are limited to 10,000 THB a day based on your risk profile with anything over this needing a face scan. This is why the BOT limits withdrawals to encourage Know Your Customer. 

 4.3 Notification and upgrade mechanism

The Banks should  notify customers about their limits and their risk profile. They could easily do that with a notification on their mobile phones.  

4.4 Protection of vulnerable groups

Special rules for customers under 15 and over 65: initial limit THB 50,000/day unless upgraded.

Banks must design UX (user interface) this with transaction alerts as they do now. Likewise they should add the blocking of suspicious links to protect these groups. This would require help form the mobile phone networks.

4.5 Reporting and audit

Banks must maintain logs of transaction limits, risk tier upgrades, biometric verification procedures and suspicious transaction reports (STRs) to the Anti Money Laundering Office (AMLO).

5. Practical implications for customers and banks

For customers

If you are a new bank customer. This mainly for those who wish to use the mobile app. Here you might be limited to the daily transfer or withdrawal limit is THB 50,000 (or another figure set by your bank based on your risk tier).

5.1  Many years ago I worked for a law firm in Cape Town in South Africa where fraud was high. One of our clients was a large bank. I noticed that many of the fraud that occurred was drawn into children’s bank accounts. They used them as mule accounts as there is no photo ID which you only get at 16 years of age. Even today they do a face scan for everyone but especially for the children accounts as their faces on not of the government database (which they primarily use) as they don’t have a photo ID as yet.

Secondly the photo quality at the Thai banks are not done very well. I doubt that you can read a scan for facial recognition on that compared to a mobile phone camera. They will in the future need to do it again such as matching your ID or passport to a passport photo you submitted. Then read it into the system with a photo scanner. That will work, what they are doing now I doubt that it will work.

Secondly with South Africa their banking apps have short comings as well. You cannot designnate a camera as the front camera is the default. Trying the ATM machine in low light is frustrating as the front camera does not have a light.

Thirdly since the software is not that “bright” it will accept a photo as a human. Can the software detect if you are a human or not. We have seen on YouTube how people by pass the facial recognition for doors. That will be the next level scam being pulled. There should be two phase photos. The first is the standard photo, the second one will tell you to smile. If it’s a photo it will not change. Software can tell if you are smiling or not. You could even use the fingerprint reader with a photo. You don’t need to take finger prints. You can record it after the first few photos. The legal question is – are bank allowed to collect fingerprints for an ID? Staying ahead of fraud means taking a realistic view between security and convenience. This is why BOT limits withdrawals. 

For banks and fintechs

Must embed risk profiling and tier limit frameworks into their digital banking apps.

They have upgraded biometric verification with device binding as well as single device or one user controls per account. This is where we are now.

The banks must provide a clear disclosure to their customers about their transfer limit. Likewise how to request an upgrade. Likewise the procedures in case of fraud.

The banks must also maintain a robust real time monitoring systems. This to detect any mule‐accounts. Likewise with suspicious transfers and rapid fund freezing.

They will also need to ensure that for high volume clients, this can be wealthy people or corporates. They will need to ensure “premium” verified status so higher limits apply and user experience is preserved.

6. Outstanding ambiguities & enforcement issues

In Thailand’s June 2025 scam it was mainly young adults aged 25–34 who were the most heavily targeted. They are followed by those aged 35–44 and 18–24. Seniors were less frequently scammed but suffered higher average losses per incident.

Key Insights

Investment scams were the most damaging, accounting for 66% of financial losses across all age groups. The next group where young adults (25–34) faced the highest number of scam attempts. This was mainly through social media and job platforms. Lastly there are the seniors (60+) who were less frequently targeted but tended to lose more money per incident due to trust-based scams like romance or impersonation.

The average Thai adult faced 172 scam attempts annually, with 60% reporting successful scams in the past year. Lastly and particularly concerning is the finding that 27% of parents report their children aged 7-17 have been scammed. This is the reasons as explained above why the BOT limits withdrawals. 

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