Thailand drafts BNPL rules: all-in charges capped at 15% a year (effective rate)

Implications for lenders

A Thai BNPL book would need every customer's ability to repay assessed and total charges kept within 15% a year (effective rate) as an effective rate, which may require repricing products that rely on fees or instalment mark-ups. Credit per person would be limited to THB 20,000 per person and terms to 6 months per item, so limit-setting and exposure tracking across a customer's purchases may need to change. Collection practices would also come under explicit fairness requirements.

Implications

Facts

The draft: on 19 October 2026 a deputy government spokesperson announced that the Ministry of Finance (MOF) and the Bank of Thailand (BOT) had put draft rules on buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) credit out for public comment from 16 October to 15 November 2026, through the BOT website or the government's central law portal. The rules are a draft and not yet in force.

The terms: users must be at least 20 years ¹ old. Credit is limited to THB 20,000 per person ², with repayment of up to 6 months per item ³. Interest and related charges are capped at 15% a year (effective rate) ⁴; the cap is measured as an effective rate and includes fees and any increase in the product price caused by choosing to pay in instalments.

Conduct: providers must assess each customer's ability to repay, disclose interest, fees and a repayment schedule clearly, separate the decision to buy from the credit application, and collect debts in an appropriate and fair way. The reports of the announcement do not say which law the rules will be issued under, how existing balances above the limit will be treated, or whether providers must report to the credit bureau.

Analysis

Over time, the draft turns the BOT's earlier plan into concrete numbers. In September the BOT said it planned to license BNPL providers, with about 6 ⁵ main providers expected to need a licence. The last published market size was THB 17.9 bn ⁶ across 4.91 m accounts ⁷ at end-2024, or about THB 3,650 ⁸ per account. On those figures the proposed per-person limit sits well above the average balance, so the rate cap and the ban on instalment mark-ups may matter more to providers' revenue than the limit itself.

Across the region, Malaysia chose licensing and affordability checks rather than a price cap: its Consumer Credit Act regime requires BNPL providers to hold at least RM2 million ⁹ in equity and to assess affordability on credit above RM1,000 ¹⁰. Thailand's draft instead combines a hard limit, a tenor limit and an all-in rate cap with an affordability assessment for every customer.

Counterpoints and uncertainties

This is a consultation draft: limits, the rate cap, the age threshold and the start date can change before the final rules, and the reports do not name the legal instrument. A hard cap and stricter checks could push some users toward unregulated lenders. The end-2024 market figures are the latest published and may understate current balances.