Transcript of the above video:

A topic that has been on the lips of many Expats recently is the announced changes to Bank Deposit Laws here in Thailand. There was a publication in the Pattaya Mail, that is the pattayamail.com, that summed this up pretty well I thought. There was some excerpts in an article titled: Thailand's cut in Bank Deposit Protection Doesn't Mean a Collapse is Imminent. There has been some real concern and consternation in the Expat community surrounding this. Quoting directly: "From August 11, the maximum deposit protection in individual Thai Bank accounts is reduced from 5 million to 1 million Baht or about 22,000 GBP. Inevitably, this has set off a wave of social media frenzy with foreign retirees and others alarmed that their cash deposits might disappear overnight or that even the whole of the Thai Banking System is in danger of disintegration. Best to calm down!" Well put. Quoting further: "The Deposit Protection Act of 2008 was introduced in the wake of the world financial crisis of that era. The amounts protected have been regularly reduced over the years until they reached 5 million Baht. Then in April 2020, the Thai Cabinet announced the 1 million limit would come into force in August 2021 but this still covers 98.03% of total depositors investing in 35 financial institutions according to Kasikorn Research Centre." Just FYI, 1 million Baht is roughly about US$ 30,000 for those who are unaware. 

So yeah, this is been a concern to most folks and as the author noted in that article, and I urge those to go check out Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Thailand's Cut in Bank Deposit Protection Laws Doesn't Mean a Collapse is Imminent. Go check that out. This is well put and you know it is best to calm down. I think everybody just needs to chill out a minute and understand that this was coming, this has been being ratcheted down for years now. I think at one point it went from 20 million to 5 million, don't quote me on that but I think I remember that a few years ago, like 3 to 5 years ago, it went from 20 million total down to 5 million. Now it is going from 5 to 1. Again retirees seem to be the ones that are concerned most about this. 

We did another video contemporaneously with this one discussing that more at length. Long story short, if you are maintaining a bank balance to maintain a Thai Retirement Visa the balance minimum you need to maintain a Thai Retirement Visa is 800,000 Baht in a Thai Bank Account. Well 1 million Baht is over that number so those that are just maintaining 800,000 Baht don't really need to worry about problems with respect to the deposit protections associated with that bank deposit. So the thing to take away from this video, yeah it is out there; it is an issue but it is not an issue that in my opinion is something to really get overly concerned about at least at this time.