Thai central bank issues $1.6B in government bonds on IBM blockchain The Bank of Thailand has issued the world’s first blockchain-based government savings bond platform. The Bank of Thailand launched the world’s first blockchain-based government savings bond issuance platform using IBM’s blockchain technology. Within two weeks of the launch, the central bank sold more than…
Thai central bank studies option of virtual banking licenses BANGKOK — Bank of Thailand’s deputy governor Ronadol Numnonda said the central bank is studying the pros and cons of virtual banking now that central banks in other countries have granted licenses for digital banking. Banks in Europe, Singapore and Malaysia already offer customer services via…
BOT focuses on pre-emptive moves to mitigate Covid-19 impact on economy Pre-emptive measures will be launched in three areas to prop the economy up, it was decided at a meeting of the Bank of Thailand (BOT)’s Monetary Policy Committee and the Financial Institutions Policy Committee. At the year’s first biannual meeting on July 7 of…
US Treasury mulls putting Thailand on its ‘watchlist’ as a currency manipulator Thailand’s trade surplus with the US has now exceeded US$20 billion. Bloomberg reports that this could trigger the Thai currency to be added to the US Treasury’s watchlist of “currency manipulators”. According to US Census Bureau data, the surplus reached US$20.05 billion in…
Thailand’s four challenges : Debt, inequality, plastics and climate change Thais tended to get into debt faster, for longer and for higher amounts. Indebtedness starts as soon as they begin to work at age 25 and can increase until 56 years old. Bank of Thailand Governor Veerathai Santiprabhob, in his speech entitled “Formulating for the…
Aspire Set to Become First SME Neobank in Southeast Asia with US$32.5 Million Raise The recent financing has been led by Mass-Mutual Ventures Southeast Asia with participation from Silicon Valley’s Arc Labs and existing investors Y Combinator, Hummingbird and Picus Capital. SINGAPORE, August 1st 2019. Y Combinator backed Aspire, who is on a mission to…
Asian real estate and US interest rates Continued upward movements of US interest rates are starting to impact Asian real estate markets in a number of ways Economic conditions in the US continue along a path of steady improvement, with the latest GDP growth rate of 4.1% (annualized), signifying the strongest rate of growth in…
Bangkok Bank and Commerzbank run international trade transaction on Marco Polo blockchain network Two banking members of blockchain trade finance initiative Marco Polo – Bangkok Bank and Commerzbank – have jointly executed an international trade transaction using distributed ledger technology (DLT). Launched in 2017, Marco Polo, which counts over 20 banks from across the globe as its…
Narrowed focus for bank mergers THE Secondary Mortgage Corporation (SMC) and the Government Housing Bank (GHB) will be merged under a plan to cut costs and boost efficiencies, but it has emerged that no other state-run lenders are in the frame to be combined. While Finance Minister Apisak Tantivorawong said that a draft law would…
