The Bank of Thailand will enhance due diligence monitoring and prioritise the investigation of suspicious transactions, including at commercial lenders, its governor said on Tuesday, as the country struggles to curb online scams.
The central bank will also strengthen the supervision and inspection of financial service providers, including money transfer agents and currency exchanges, and probe certain gold transactions, Vitai Ratanakorn said.
‘Any irregularities must be reported to the BoT,’ Mr Vitai said in a statement.
‘This will enable comprehensive monitoring and investigation of financial trails that may be involved in fraud.’
Border areas between Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia have become hubs for online fraud since the Covid-19 pandemic, with criminal networks operating sprawling multibillion-dollar cyberscam compounds.
Last month, former banker Vorapak Tanyawong resigned as deputy finance minister following allegations linking him to a transnational scam operation operating out of Cambodia.
Despite multinational crackdowns, scam compounds that house tens of thousands of people, including trafficking victims, continue to operate in the region and are expanding globally, according to the United Nations.