To reshape payment methods to serve a modern lifestyle, electronic money is being developed. At least three kinds - virtual money, mobile wallets, and cash cards - have been launched in Thailand to make payments easier. From using physical bank notes, people can now use their virtual money to pay for various kinds of services.

Virtual money on the Internet

This is the first type of electronic money which was launched in Thailand last year. Designed like an electronic wallet where virtual money can be stored, users can make a payment to buy products and services from the Internet. There are two service providers, PaySbuy and ThaiePay, that offer the service.

Users have to open their account and create their wallet for online shopping. They can put money into their wallet in two ways - by funds from their savings account or transferring from a credit-card account.

Not all shopping websites support this payment method. Each service provider has its own list of shopping websites, available for this kind of payment.

PaySBuy allows its customers to use their electronic wallet to pay its online merchants, known as PaySBuy Shops.  Tarrad.com, Thaisecondhand.com, and Marketathome.com are examples.

"More than 1,000 online shops accept PaySBuy's electronic wallet," said Somwang Laungphaiboonsri, general manager of PaySBuy.

ThaiePay also allows its customers to use their wallet to pay its shopping websites:  Hotel4you.com, Siamhostmart.com and Thaimarketcenter.com.

The system infrastructure of both service providers uses the security standards of 128-bit SSL Certificate, with 128-bit encryption, verified by Visa.

 This kind of payment is to facilitate the growth of e-commerce. People feel safer when they pay electronically instead of using a credit card as they don't need to key in their 16-digit

 credit

 card number on the Internet.

Mobile payment

M-wallet is the second type of electronic money that is popular. The concept of mobile payment is to store electronic money in mobile phones. Mobile operators introduced this form of advance payment to the market several months ago.

There are two main providers - True Money and Advanced mPay.

Advanced mPay, a mobile payment system provider and a subsidiary of Advanced Info Service (AIS), has developed the mPay service to turn a mobile phone into a mobile wallet, storing virtual money to pay for any purchase.

With the utilisation of Unstructured Supplementary Service Data, mPay allows AIS users to easily experience the new style of payment through mobile phones.

They just dial *555* followed by the service code, money amount and PIN code to make a mobile payment.

Since its launch late last year, the company has about 450,000 users, of which at least 15 per cent are active, using mPay to pay AIS bills, One-2-Call refills, buying items from vending machines, paying utility bills and online shopping.

Users who subscribe to the mPay service can pay electricity and water bills. They can use the service to pay Capital OK's leasing bills and credit-card bills as well.

 Money stored in mobile phones can be transferred from ATMs for further payments. The mPay account can link up with the user's savings account or credit card.

 The company plans to encourage about 10 per cent of AIS's 17 million users to subscribe to mPay services by the end of the year.

 The mobile wallet is expected to be enhanced with the Near Field Communication (NFC) technology to enable mobile phones equipped with radio frequency identification (RFID) to communicate with other NFC-enabled devices to effect payment transactions.

True Money is a mobile wallet designed for True Move users. True Money works on the SIM Tool Kit (STK) that is embedded in every new SIM card from True Move. If a SIM card has no True Money function, users can send "tm" or "tmen" to "9000" to install the True Money engine on their SIM card.

Users can pour money into the True Money account by pooling their savings accounts and credit-card accounts and transferring money directly from the assigned ATM cards.

Inside the True Money account, which starts at Bt30,000, users have three kinds of money stored - in cash format, credit card format, and debit or savings account format.

During any transaction, users can choose the type of money they prefer, the same way they use money from their wallet.

It serves four purposes - to refill, to pay, to transfer and to withdraw. Users can use True Money to refill for Pre-Paid True Move, WE PCT Buddy, an online game Fun Card, and Internet Kit. They can also use True Money to pay for Post-Paid True Move, UBC, high-speed Internet, electricity bills, and pay online merchants at WeLoveShopping.com.

They can use True Money for money transfers between True Money accounts, to transfer from True Money to savings accounts, and from savings accounts to True Money. Banks included are BAY, KBANK, KTB, TMB, SCB, and UOB.

 Users can withdraw money from True Money directly at ATM machines.

Cash cards

The last type is the one that the people are most familiar with - the cash card. Its concept is a cashless card that allows greater flexibility for customers to make money transfers and store money on their cards.

 The cash card's purpose is to come up with loyalty programmes and customer relationship management which allows people using cash to accept points and rewards in the same way as using a credit card.

The beauty of the cash card is the cash and credit functionality in one card that allows more choices for payment.

Two major providers have launched cash cards.

Thai Smart Card cooperated with the One Plus Group and Payment Solution which provides OK Cash-Digital Money.

One Plus's cash card is mainly known and used in the large 7-Eleven retail chain, and its partners such as Counter Service, BTS and RS Promotion. OK Cash is a digital money system provided by Payment Solution, a subsidiary of Capital OK.

 One Plus Group's cash card called "Smart Purse" has both contact and contactless interfaces to store digital money worth up to Bt10,000.

More than one million cash cards are expected to be issued this year, which will generate at least Bt500 million in transactions. Three million should be issued next year and up to five million by 2008.

This year there are expected to be 10,000 places where cards will be accepted, climbing to 25,000 next year and 35,000 for 2008. There are now 10,000 payment points among 60 partners that accept cash cards, such as cinema chains, fast-food chains and bookstore chains.

 There are more than 250,000 shops accepting OK Cash and at least 100,000 cash cards have been issued. Each card has average transactions of Bt600 to Bt700 a month.

 Thanin Angsuwarangsri, general manager of Payment Solution, said there are two types of cash card - identified and non-identified. An identified card contains information revealing the identity of the person who originally withdrew the money from the bank. Also, in much the same manner as credit cards, identified electronic money enables the bank to track the cash as it moves through the economy.

 A non-identified cash card works just like paper cash.

Once anonymous electronic money is withdrawn from an account, it can be spent or given away without leaving a trail.

 "Identified cards can store up to Bt100,000 in digital money as opposed to the Bt25,000 only on non-identified cards," said Thanin.

 With these advanced technologies, people have many more choices for their payment methods.

 Electronic payments have become easy and part of daily life that can be used anywhere, anytime.

Asina Pornwasin

The Nation