If you are planning to live or retire in Thailand as an expat, you should verse yourself on savings bank deposit protection Deposit Protection Agency (DPA).
Deposit protection was established by the government to strengthen the financial system and protect depositors against the loss of their deposits with financial institutions, up to a certain amount of coverage. Depositors will be reimbursed within the stipulated period of time without having to wait for the financial liquidation process to finish.
For protection, deposits need to be in Thai baht (foreign currency accounts are not covered), held in an account in Thailand
The Deposit Protection Institution Act took effect on August 11, 2008. Since then, the initial full-coverage protection limit of 100 million Baht per depositor per financial institution has been continuously reduced, to 50 million Baht on August 11, 2012 and to 15 million baht on August 11, 2016. From August 11, 2021, the Deposit Protection Agency will lower the deposit coverage limit to 1 million baht. To provide assurance to investors, the Deposit Protection Agency has continuously collaborated with Thai commercial banks to publicize information about the deposit protection limit and update the changes to depositors, so that they have ample time to make decisions.
What is the coverage limit?
If a member financial institution’s license is revoked, depositors of that institution will receive their deposits from the Deposit Protection Agency up to the coverage limit. The coverage is based on a per depositor per institution basis (not one account per institution), meaning that depositors with multiple accounts across all branches of that institution will have those deposits – both principal and interest – aggregated into a single amount.
The current coverage limit is 1 million baht.
When expats retire to Thailand many will have over 1,000,000 thb in savings.
What should they do?
The only thing you can do, is keep some money in your home country bank.
Spread the rest of the money (risk) among multiple banks in Thailand.
Take out a deposit insurance policy. There are a number of private companies that offer deposit insurance policies. These policies typically insure deposits up to $1 million or more.
Here are some additional tips for protecting your money in a Thai bank:
- Choose a reputable bank. Do your research and choose a bank that has a good reputation and is financially sound.
- Be careful about who you give your personal information to. Only give your personal information to authorized bank employees.
- Keep your account information safe. Do not share your account number, password, or PIN with anyone.
- Be aware of phishing scams. Phishing scams are emails or text messages that appear to be from a legitimate source, such as your bank. These emails or text messages often contain links that, if clicked, will take you to a fake website that looks like the real website of your bank. Once you enter your personal information on the fake website, it will be stolen by the scammers.
By following these tips, you can help protect your money in a Thai bank.