Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are asking the question will new Thai Bank Account issues have an impact on retirees? First, what are we talking about? I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Foreign applicants for Thai Bank Accounts facing new crackdown. Quoting directly: "Foreigners wishing to open a Thai Bank Account face additional hurdles from Monday, February 17. Even those who require a savings or current account to apply for a Destination Thailand Visa (with 500,000 Baht), or a Non-Immigrant "O" Retirement permit (with 800,000 Baht) are likely to find difficulties. Well-connected and popular agencies such as TikTok based in Jomtien, have advised on social media that they will be unable to assist with opening Bank Accounts for foreign customers until further notice. The Thai Government, via the Bank of Thailand, has officially launched a renewed attack on mule accounts in Thailand aiming to curb financial fraud and money laundering. Freezing a staggering 1.8 million bank accounts suspected of being mule accounts, the Anti-money Laundering Office says that 2500 account holders have actually been arrested during the past year. Police enquiries are now centering on telecommunications companies, digital platforms, e-wallet service providers as well as actual consumers. Government officials are reluctant to give a time scale for the latest crackdown on foreigners trying to open bank accounts in Thailand." That is telling the fact that they are not really saying, "oh well just this too shall pass, give it a couple of weeks". This could be policy folks, and I think it might be.  If anything, has consistently come through in the last year and a half, especially since the so-called digital wallet is that this know your customer stuff, bureaucrats are gaga over it and they love the idea of Nanny-mindering everybody. So it wouldn't shock me if a lot of this stuff might be here to stay and maybe getting bank accounts might become something a little bit tricky to deal with. 

That said, quoting further: "Tellers at Thai Banks told Pattaya Mail that the problem might last for several weeks whilst investigations continue into fake websites, messaging apps, social media and individuals suspected of involvement in banking criminality." Let's go back and take that comment, consider the source. "Tellers at Thai Banks in Pattaya". No offense to tellers in Thai Banks; they have a function; they're great people, but are they going to be super in tune with what overarching policy is regarding these matters especially how it interacts between sort of Financial and Banking Policy and Immigration Policy? I kind of doubt it. So again, where again Government officials are hesitant to say, "oh there's some sort of time frame, this too shall pass." Don't presume this is necessarily something that is just going to come and go. This could end up being policy. That said, quoting further: "Some Bank staff say that the biggest single issue involves Asian tourists opening bank accounts to launder cash into capital-flight cryptocurrency which is hard to track." Well, I mean and that is going to somehow magically stop? Pretty sure nobody's ever going to eliminate Asians or cryptocurrency, ever, okay? There are a billion Chinese, just to say the least. I don't know how many other billions of people exist on the Eurasian land mass. They're not going anywhere and neither is cryptocurrency. 

So my point being is again if you're looking at this like, "it’s a one-off, this too shall pass", I could  see where banking protocols could get more stringent just in a general sense. It would be in line with overarching trends. We've seen especially in line with issues associated with what they tried to do in terms of Central Bank Digital Currency and just the overarching theme of Know Your Customer to begin with. Me personally, I think Know Your Customer is nonsense. I don't particularly want to know my customer. I want him to pay me for services rendered and move along, but again it's this Nanny minder attitude we are talking about and unfortunately, we are just going to have to deal with that.

That said, retirees, what should you know with regard to this generally? Well the big issue is if you're new and you haven't gotten set up here yet, this is going to have tremendous ramifications on you. As we have discussed in other videos, there is kind of a cart before the horse, catch-22 sort of aspect to Retirement Visas where you need a Bank Account to get the visa, and you need a visa to get the Bank Account. Destination Thailand Visas are similar; I'll get into specific analysis for you folks in a video I am making concurrently with this one. But that being said, for retirees specifically, again things don't necessarily work the same way in Pattaya, and this is being reported out of Pattaya. It's not going to necessarily work the same way as it will up here in Bangkok. We are aware of these changes of protocol here in Bangkok, but we have relationships with Banks that we deal with, and they have said, "look, if we're still going to be dealing with legitimate people and we know what their background is, it's not going to be a big deal." But there are increased protocols in Pattaya for sure, and again I'm not saying I have any inside track on this. Our people are just saying look it looks like there may be some extra work, but we can still basically get the solutions for folks that we have been able to get in the past. We think we're going to continue to be able to do so with regard to retirees. In fact, I'm confident we'll be able to do so at least out of here in Bangkok. How things remain in Pattaya remain to be seen.

But that being said yes, there are banking changes; yes it could have an impact on retirees. For those who feel a little overwhelmed by this news, it may not be a terrible idea to contact a legal professional, gain some insight and guidance into how best to proceed.