Banque Pour Le Commerce Exterieur Lao Public (BCEL) has entered into a strategic partnership with Thanachart Bank of Thailand to bring QR Code payment services to Thailand for Lao shoppers.
The two banks signed a partnership yesterday at the Bank of Thailand, with the QR Code payment service to begin in May this year.
Thanachart Bank will settle bill payments on behalf of Thai vendors that accept QR Code payments from Lao residents using the mobile application from BCEL, according to a statement by Thanachart Bank.
Around 1 million vendors have already registered for QR Code payment systems in Thailand, while in Laos the system is only just starting to take off.
The number of vendors in Laos registering for the BCEL OnePay QR Code system is increasing 10 percent per month, with transactions increasing 10 percent per month, according to BCEL, which claims to have 90 percent of the mobile banking business in Laos.
BCEL’s customers number about one million, out of a national population of seven million. About 200,000 of them use the mobile banking application, according to Nanthalath Keopaseuth, Deputy Managing Director of BCEL.
BCEL launched OnePay in November last year.
Source: Nation Multimedia
