According to a local newspaper called The Nation, recently, the fourth biggest bank of Thailand has joined the blockchain-based Visa B2B Connect program for international payments.
The Nation indicated that Kasikornbank will be the first bank in Thailand to be using this technology, which will result in a more widespread use of blockchain in the banking industry.
Visa’s Thailand country manager, Suripong Tantiyanon, with regard to this partnership, noted that Visa B2B will assist the progress in “security, governance, and distributed ledger technology.”
Kasikornbank’s senior vice president, Siriporn Wongtriphop, the use of blockchain for cross-border payments will support the firm as “the industry leader” thanks to the additional security it offers for payments.
According to Visa’s website, in order to perform corporate international payments, B2B Connect was starter in 2017. Among the first partners able to perform direct transactions with Visa’s blockchain-based B2B technology, announced are the U.S. Commerce Bank, Shinhan Bank, in South Korea, the Union Bank of Philippines, and Singapure’s United Overseas Bank.
The headquarters of Kasikornbank, the former Thai Farmers Bank, is in Bangkok. Moody recently published a research indicating that by March 2018, Kasikornbank owned $96 billion in total assets.
As stated by Cointelegraph in August, the local banks were allowed to establish subsidiaries to deal with cryptocurrencies upon the permission from the Bank of Thailand (BoT). The regulation highlights that Thai banks can issue digital tokens, serve for crypto brokerage, conduct crypto-associated business, and but cryptocurrencies via its subsidiaries.
