On 5 November 2026 the Bank of Thailand announced that it will not accept applications for new money changer licences for the whole of 2027. The last chance to apply under the current rules is 1–30 December 2026. The next windows open only in 2028, and under new rules: twice a year, in March and September. Money changers that operate now are not closing, but during 2027 they must bring themselves up to the new standards. In the same weeks the central bank is discussing another big thing: a stablecoin pegged one to one to the baht. According to the Governor, the rules for it are expected by March 2027.
If you change cash at money changers in Pattaya, nothing changes tomorrow. But both stories are about the same thing: the regulator is pulling money out of the grey zone and tightening customer checks wherever baht turns into something else.
What the Bank of Thailand decided on money changers
The pause was announced by Assistant Governor Pimpan Charoenkwan, who is in charge of financial markets at the Bank of Thailand. The bank’s logic is to bring existing operators up to the new standards first, and only then let newcomers in.
At present applications are accepted four times a year. The schedule from here:
- 1–30 December 2026: the last intake under the current rules, through the head office or a regional office of the Bank of Thailand;
- 2027: no new applications at all;
- from 2028: two windows a year, in March and September, under the new criteria.
The bank promises to publish the criteria themselves in December 2026. The draft discussed in September sets a tough deadline for existing money changers: apply for the upgrade by 31 December 2027. Anyone who doesn’t apply sees their licence expire that day. Those who need to top up capital or cut branches are promised roughly another year.
Why money changers
The bank says it plainly: a cash business risks becoming a channel for moving and hiding criminal money. The central bank calls grey money and fraud a structural problem for the economy, and money changers sit on the same list of five measures as large cash deals in gold and BNPL instalments. Governor Vitai Ratanakorn presented the list on 29 October and set it out for the period from November 2026 to March 2027.
There are more than two thousand money changers in the country. So, in the bank’s view, the pause for newcomers won’t affect tourists or residents: there are plenty of places to change currency. Market participants broadly agreed: at the hearing 57% backed the plan and 23% opposed it. Those against say the current rules are enough, and the new ones will raise costs and hit small outlets.
There are no high-profile stories about licensed money changers behind this, at least none we could find in open sources. There is no shortage of illegal exchange services, though. On 1 November police, acting on a tip from the Bank of Thailand, shut down the Fupay websites: about 170 million baht passed through five accounts in a year, customers exchanged yuan with transfers to Alipay, and some of the accounts were linked to technology crime.
What money changers in Thailand will look like
This is still a draft; the final rules come out in December. But the direction is clear. Money changers will be split into three types by size:
| Small | Medium | Large | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum capital | 1,000,000฿ | 10,000,000฿ | 20,000,000฿ |
| Foreign currency cash per customer per day | up to 100,000฿ | up to 800,000฿ | up to 2,000,000฿ |
| Customers | individuals only | individuals only | individuals and companies |
| Branches | none | up to 10 | up to 20, and more as capital grows |
Customer checks are getting close to what banks do. The draft includes screening against the lists of the Anti-Money Laundering Office (AMLO) and against the register of mule accounts: if a customer is on it, the deal cannot go ahead. Deals above 800,000฿ require enhanced due diligence, and if it can’t be carried out, the money changer must refuse. The director and the compliance officer sit a Bank of Thailand exam, large outlets undergo an annual external audit, receipts will show the time of the deal, and a certificate of the licence status will be displayed where customers can see it.
Another rule already applies alongside this, and it’s no longer a draft: since 1 November 2026, cash transactions of 5,000,000฿ or more, including buying and selling currency at banks, go through enhanced checks.
What a baht stablecoin is
In simple terms, a stablecoin is a cryptocurrency whose price is pegged to ordinary money: one token should be worth one unit of the currency. The best known is USDT, pegged to the dollar. The Bank of Thailand wants the same kind of coin, but in baht and under its own supervision.
A public hearing on a THB stablecoin runs from 19 October to 17 November. At first it was set for just ten days, until 28 October, but it was later extended to a month. The central bank’s consultation paper describes the coin in some detail.
One to one, and no interest. The coin is pegged to the baht and fully backed. At launch the backing is bank deposits only, held at several banks and kept separate from the issuer’s assets in case the issuer goes bankrupt. The issuer must redeem the coin for baht within one business day. Paying holders interest, or any reward for holding the coin for a long time or in large amounts, is banned.
It’s not a replacement for PromptPay. The bank says outright that the coin complements existing payments. Its uses: settlement on the blockchain, deals in tokenised assets and cross-border transfers.
Two separate licences. The issuer creates the coins, holds the reserve and publishes its size every day. The wallet provider stores coins and handles payments. There will be few issuers at launch; the paper gives no exact number. The figure of “about two” circulating in the English-language press is not something we found in the primary source. There can be any number of wallet providers: applications are taken in rounds, with no cap. Licences are issued by the Ministry of Finance on the recommendation of the Bank of Thailand.
Verified wallets only. The coin moves only between wallets whose owners have passed identity checks. The issuer can freeze, seize or burn coins, including when they have been bridged to another blockchain or “wrapped” in another token. Connecting wallets to foreign crypto exchanges outside SEC supervision is banned, so that the coin doesn’t become a way round currency controls.
Why all this? In an interview reported by Thaiger, the Governor explains it like this: a crypto investor who has sold bitcoin will be able to keep the money in a Thai coin, without moving it to a bank account and without going into USDT. Banks are interested. Kasikornbank says it is looking at a licence but is waiting for detailed rules.
What we don’t know yet
The exact date. “March 2027” comes from the Governor’s words as reported by the press. The Bank of Thailand’s page gives only a general period for all five measures, from November 2026 to March 2027. After the hearing, the Ministry of Finance has to declare stablecoin issuance a licensed business, then the bank will issue rules, and there will be another hearing on the draft rules.
Foreigners and tourists. The paper says nothing about them. From the ban on links to foreign exchanges it follows that the coin can only be held in a Thai wallet with identity checks. How a foreigner would open such a wallet hasn’t been said yet.
Final standards for money changers. The table above is a draft; the figures may still change in December.
What this means for currency exchange in Pattaya
Nothing urgent. You can change cash at a licensed money changer as before. If the amount is large, expect questions and to show your passport: the checks will only get stricter. Be more careful with random counterparties in P2P and with anonymous online services where baht arrive from unknown accounts. Mule accounts are now the main target of the bank and the police, and if you’ve been paid with money from such an account, yours can be frozen too. We covered how this happens in the article “P2P in Thailand: scams and frozen accounts”, and what the regulator is already doing about USDT in “USDT in Thailand in 2026”.
You can change roubles or USDT into baht with delivery through our exchange. Today’s rate is on its site (in Russian), and the manager confirms the final one.
If you were planning to open a money changer yourself, now is the time to decide: applications under the current rules will only be accepted from 1 to 30 December 2026, and the next window is March 2028.
