Thailand has become a case study for the use of biometric data in every facet of life. Every banking transaction is monitored and scrutinized. Any perceived discrepancy is flagged as fraud and punished without due process. Regulations have overwhelmed the system, resulting in a full-fledged banking crisis. Over three million Thai bank accounts were frozen instantaneously without warning as a result of government overreach.
Transaction denied. You contact your bank to see why the payment failed only to learn that your account has been frozen–all of your accounts, for that matter. The bank is investigating you for suspicious activity and potential money laundering or fraud. There was no warning call or letter and there is no clarification as to what transaction was flagged. You’re completely locked out of your accounts and have lost the ability to purchase. You cannot fill your gas tank, you cannot purchase groceries, you’ve been completely removed from the financial system, and do not know when or if you’ll regain access to your funds.
This is the reality for millions of people banking in Thailand. The Bank of Thailand (BoT), with the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau and the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society, began an excessive crackdown on perceived fraud and streamlined the process under the premise of safeguarding the banking sector. Thousands of accounts are frozen each week. Panic has ensued. Retailers are no longer accepting cards, demanding payment in cash as they, too, are worried that they will be removed from the banking system.
Assistant Governor of the BoT, Darunee Saeju, publicly stated that the central bank is working to “immediately unlock wrongly affected accounts.” Saeju insists that new measures will enable the banks to verify accounts in under 48 hours. Confidence in the government and the entire banking system evaporated. People rationally fear that their account will be targeted next, without warning. Government overreach has backfired, and the people are removing themselves from the banking system entirely.
This phenomenon is not limited to Thailand. Vietnam recently erased 86 million unverified bank accounts. Governments are demanding banks track every transaction, tracing each account back to individual citizens using biometric data. The government believes these provisions will prevent capital from leaving the radar and, therefore, taxation. Instead, governments are propelling the cycle amid this private wave, as the people cannot possibly trust the current financial system.