Tightening the existing practical guidelines for financial transaction executions is at the top of the agenda for today's tri-party meeting with the Bank of Thailand, aiming to prevent future system crashes and help restore consumer confidence in digital banking transactions.
The Banking Information Technology Club, a unit under the Thai Bankers' Association (TBA), plans to hold a meeting today with the central bank and the National Interbank Transaction Management and Exchange Co (ITMX), an electronic payment gateway and switching company.
The discussion is to include practical guidelines for the internal processes of each bank, cross-bank procedures, and related networks between banks and ITMX, said TBA chairman Predee Daochai.
Banks typically comply with practical guidelines, but some areas are occasionally relaxed and need to be tightened to prevent future glitches, he said.
Mr Predee, who is also Kasikornbank's (KBank) president, blamed human error and internal networks rather than insufficient capacity for the shutdown experienced by the banking industry last Friday.
The crash was spotted at KBank after interbank transactions flooded its electronic system, which also disrupted other banks' systems, particularly for mobile banking services.
The system failed for a while before resuming later, and there were no reports of financial loss, he said. However, consumers felt inconvenienced by the delayed transactions.
All banks are repaying any fees to customers within one day, shortened from three days in the past, in case of system failure.
Digital transactions, particularly via mobile banking, have shot up after banks waived fees for transactions over the digital channel in late March.
The launch of PromptPay, the money transfer service under the national e-payment scheme, early last year also drew people to shift to the electronic banking platform because it provides more convenience and speed, and has lower costs.
"On average, there are thousands of mobile banking transactions per second. Despite the massive volume, capacity is still sufficient and it will be further expanded in preparation for the future," Mr Predee said.
Banking transactions always peak at the end of every month, so capacity should be four times higher that day than normal days, and both banks and the National ITMX have geared up to make that happen, he said.
Apart from complying with stringent practical guidelines, banks need to test new technologies and install new features to ensure smooth operations, said Mr Predee.
In the meantime, he said banks agreed to raise the fund transfer ceiling and ticket sizes of PromptPay services. The meeting will discuss applying the same formula to calculate fees for banks' traditional channels as PromptPay.
