Plans by PayPal to scrap the vast majority of its services in Thailand from March 7 will now not go ahead, the online payment provider has announced.
It means that users in Thailand will be able to use their accounts to send and receive payments online.
Earlier, PayPal had said it would suspend account services for users in Thailand from March 7 after the company had failed to comply with new laws recently outlined by the Thai government in its bid to regulate the country’s fintech sector.
Lawmakers were requiring PayPal to verify the identity of every individual account holder as a measure against money laundering.
However, in a dramatic u-turn, The Bank of Thailand has given PayPal a last minute reprieve, which means existing users can continue to use its consumer and business service until the end of the year.
“With the support of the Thai authorities, we have been able to keep existing PayPal accounts open for consumers and freelancers/casual sellers, and cancel the account limitations which were scheduled to take effect on March 7, 2022,” PayPal said in an email to its customers in Thailand.
“This extended functionality will remain in effect while we continue to work on updating our products and processes.”
In a statement, PayPal apologised for the confusion the issue had caused among its customers.
“We sincerely apologise for this. We deeply regret the confusion and inconvenience caused to our customers and their businesses. We are committed to serving our customers in Thailand and will work hard to regain their trust,” the company said.
“We have been working closely with the Thai authorities to address our customers’ concerns,” the company added.
Meanwhile, the company said it will continue to work towards complying with financial regulation in Thailand.
“This will include collecting the necessary identification data from natural persons for know your customer [KYC] verification in accordance with Thai laws. We will share more details about the process with our customers later this year.”
