BOT asks financial institutes to say "No" to cryptocurrency transactions

BANGKOK, February 13 (TNA) - The Bank of Thailand (BOT) has sought cooperation from all financial institutes in the country not to offer or involve in all forms of cryptocurrency transactions, stressing that the cryptocurrency is not the legal medium of exchange in the Thai Kingdom. BOT Governor Veerathai Santiprabhob told journalists on February 12 that the central bank has called for the cooperation from the financial institutes in a letter sent to them recently. "In the letter, BOT has asked that the financial institutes in the country not to offer or support cryptocurrency transactions in all forms, including selling or buying or investing in the digital money for either their own benefits or their clients' benefits, launching any digital money exchange service, opening any platform for digital money transactions for their clients, allowing the use of credit cards for buying digital money by their clients and offering any consulting service for their clients for digital money investment or exchanges", Veerathai said. Besides, BOT has urged all financial institutes in the country to be more careful in operating their deposit and lending services to ensure that cryptocurrency transaction is never involved, by strictly adhering to the "Know Your Customer (KYC) and the Customer Due Diligence (CDD) principles. KYC is a process to identify and verify the identity of business clients, while CDD comprises information of clients that enables businesses to assess a range of risks of their clients. The BOT governor confirmed, meanwhile, that all types of cryptocurrency are not legal of medium of exchange in Thailand and there has been no official agency to oversee and take care of the use of the digital money in the country. The BOT governor, again, warned that the value of the cryptocurrency has been highly fluctuating due to speculations and there has been no reliable reference and guarantee for cryptocurrency issuing sources and its real value. (TNA)