According to officials at Thailand’s Government Savings Bank (GSB), deposits made to the GSP increased by 29.27 percent in the last year. The increase is likely due to new regulations by Thailand’s Deposit Protection Agency (DPA), which starting in August 2012 will limit insurance for deposits to just 1 million baht per bank. Unlike commercial banks (such as Bangkok Bank, Siam Commercial Bank, and the like), GSB offers 100-percent protection to customers.
The DPA’s regulations are yet another legal development that will make life difficult for expat banking customers in Thailand in upcoming years. Last year, the Obama Administration passed the US HIRE Act and the Foreign Account Compliance Act, which requires all foreign institutions to report financial information on their US customers’ bank accounts and makes banks increasingly reluctant to cater to American clients.
Increasingly,US expats living in Thailand are finding it more and more difficult to live and open bank accounts in the country. It is to be wondered how such individuals will deal with such restrictions following the enactment of the DPA regulations this August, and the implementation of the HIRE and the FAC Acts at the beginning of 2013.
{ 0 comments… add one now }