Bangkok--26 Jul--KASIKORNBANK
Prizes were presented by the Ministry of Finance under the second round of the Debit Card Lucky Draw Program, totaling 6.75 million Baht. The program has been enthusiastically received, and helped boost the monthly number of debit card transactions by 30 percent over-year.
Dr. Somchai Sujjapongse, Permanent Secretary for Finance, said the Debit Card Lucky Draw Program has been initiated under the National e-Payment Project, with an aim to stimulate debit card spending. After its launch, the overall debit card market has become more active, with 54.2 million debit cards issued by financial institutions in Thailand and 5.5 million card spending transactions per month, or 30-percent growth over last year's figure of 4.3 million transactions per month. Monthly card spending value now stands at 10 billion Baht. There are two electronic data capture (EDC) service providers which started the present EDC initiative in March and have so far installed 150,000 electronic devices at more than 90,000 shops and government agencies.
The Permanent Secretary for Finance chaired the prize presentation ceremony and handed over the top prizes of one million Baht each for cardholder and card accepting merchant during the period of June 1-30, 2017. The lucky winners were Khun Phalittha Sunthra and Prasit Borikan Limited Partnership.
Other prizes were presented by Mr. Narin Kalayanamitr, Chief Inspector General of the Ministry of Finance, and Ms. Sirithida Phanomwan Na Ayutthaya, Assistant Governor for the Payment System Policy and Financial Technology of the Bank of Thailand, including 10 second prizes of 100,000 Baht each for cardholders and five second prizes of 30,000 Baht each for card accepting merchants. The remaining prizes were transferred to the recipients' bank accounts. In this second tranche, there were a total of 1,007 prizes amounting to 6.75 million Baht.
There will be 10 more prize-awarding monthly events under the Debit Card Lucky Draw Program, each month consisting of 1,001 prizes for card holders and 6-30 prizes for EDC-equipped merchants. The program will continue until April 2018. One instance of card spending or card acceptance at any EDC machine or at merchants having the machines installed by the two participating service providers will earn one right for prize winning. Banks will remit the card spending/accepting data to the central system for random selection, and the prizewinner list will be announced on the 16th day of each month atwww.epayment.go.th.