Customers to get more choices for payments
By the end of 2006, people will have more flexibility when making payments. Regardless of the character of a transaction, it will be easier than at present, thanks to electronic payment channels National ITMX is working on. The company recently shed its previous name, ATM Pool, and increased its registered capital to Bt50 million.
It will provide a wider electronic-payment range, using banks, ATM machines and offline and online establishments. Wanna Noparbhorn, managing director, said the company was planning systems for inter-bank transaction management and changes for commercial banks. The services it offers include deposits, withdrawals and balance-checking via ATM machines, transferring cash across banks via ATM machines and at bank counters, the New SMART system, transfers and payments over telephones, or on the Internet, and international withdrawals and payments across banks through ATM machines. "The New SMART, short for small and medium amount retail transaction, allows people to do direct debits across banks. The direct debits also involve several new payment services such as direct payments for electricity and water bills," said Wanna. The new services totally built via ITMX are transfers and payments across banks over fixed and mobile telephones or over the Internet. Further enhanced services are moving from the ATM Pool system to the new ITMX system. By the end of this year, the first service will have been launched, though it has yet to be decided what it will be. The ITMX system is designed to build the national infrastructure and set standards for inter-bank transactions. Its services conform to Bank of Thailand regulations. "The ITMX service will embrace 19 banks, some of them international institutions with a local presence," said Wanna. ITMX seeks to build links for the back-end switching system, create an IP/IFX for electronic payments, extend electronic payment channels nationwide, standardise SFP and real-time same-day net settlement, design financial and operational risk protection mechanisms and take advantage of security infrastructure such as digital signatures. "ITMX hints at the next generation of electronic-payment channels including multi-channel facilities unrestricted by time and place," said Wanna. It is also expected to reduce the importance of paper in transactions by encouraging e-commerce. Asina Pornwasin The Nation
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