Table of content

Page

Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................ 1

1. Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 3

1.1 Rationale and objective ......................................................................................................... 3

1.2 Scope of survey ....................................................................................................................... 3

2. Data sources and Methodology .................................................................................................. 5

2.1 Data collection and sampling .............................................................................................. 5

2.2 Definition of financial access ............................................................................................... 6

2.3 Data processing methods ...................................................................................................... 6

3. Findings and Analysis .................................................................................................................... 7

3.1 Financial access overview ...................................................................................................... 7

3.2 Access to three basic financial services ........................................................................... 10

3.2.1 Deposits/ Savings ................................................................................................................ 10

3.2.2 Loans (excluding credit cards) ........................................................................................ 13

3.2.3 Money transfers and payment ....................................................................................... 16

3.3 Financial service access channels ..................................................................................... 19

3.3.1 Deposits service channels ................................................................................................ 19

3.3.2 Loan (excluding credit card) service channels ........................................................... 21

3.3.3 Money transfer and payment services channels ....................................................... 22

3.4 Financial planning and savings behavior ......................................................................... 25

4. Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 27

5. Policy recommendations ............................................................................................................ 29

Appendix ............................................................................................................................................. 30

Appendix 1: Access to three basic financial services .......................................................... 30

Appendix 2: Access to financial services by age of households representatives ....... 32

Appendix 3: Level of Thailands financial access compared with other countries ..... 34

Appendix 4: Financial service providers distribution ......................................................... 36

Figure Page

Figure 1: Overview of financial access (eleven financial services) ........................................... 8 Figure 2: Access to eleven financial services, by income level, region, residential area

and gender .......................................................................................................................... 9 Figure 3: Number of financial services and percentage of households financial services

usage ................................................................................................................................... 10 Figure 4: Access to deposits/ savings services ............................................................................. 11

Figure 5: Access to deposits/ savings services by income level, region, residential area and gender ........................................................................................................................ 12

Figure 6: Obstacles to access deposits/ savings services and reasons for voluntary self-exclusion ............................................................................................................................ 13

Figure 7: Access to loan services ................................................................................................... 14 Figure 8: Access to loan services by income level, region, residential area and gender . 15 Figure 9: Obstacles to access loan services and reasons for voluntary self-exclusion .... 16 Figure 10: Access to money transfer and payment services .................................................. 17 Figure 11: Access to money transfer and payment services by income level, region,

residential area and gender ........................................................................................ 18 Figure 12: Obstacles to access money transfer and payment services and reasons for

voluntary self-exclusion ............................................................................................... 19 Figure 13: Motivation for savings ................................................................................................... 26 Figure 14: Savings channel .............................................................................................................. 26 Figure 15: Savings behavior for retirement ................................................................................. 26

Table Page

Table 1: Current deposits channels ............................................................................................. 20 Table 2: Additional deposits channels requested by households ....................................... 20 Table 3: Current loan channels ..................................................................................................... 21 Table 4: Additional loan channels requested by households ............................................... 22 Table 5: Current money transfer and payment channels ...................................................... 22 Table 6: Current money transfer channels ................................................................................ 23 Table 7: Additional money transfer channels requested by households .......................... 24 Table 8: Current payment channels ............................................................................................ 24 Table 9: Additional payment channels requested by households ...................................... 25

Executive Summary

The Bank of Thailand (BOT) has regularly been conducting triennial surveys on households financial access since 2003, and has collaborated with Thailands National Statistical Office (NSO) since 2006. The objective of the household survey is to assess and monitor the level of financial access which serve as valuable inputs for the formulation of appropriate financial inclusion policies. The latest survey, undertaken in 2016, covered 10,866 households across Thailand. The survey measured access1 to eleven key financial services2 commonly provided by financial institutions.

Overall, Thai households had better access to financial services with access level at 97.3% in 2016 compared to 95.8% in 2013. Among these households, 86.3% used financial services while 11.0% chose not to use financial services (voluntarily self-excluded). With regards to genders, both males and females had comparable access to financial services at 97.0% and 97.6%, respectively. While commercial banks and Specialized Financial Institutions (SFIs) remained primary service providers of financial services, non-banks such as village funds and electronic payments (e-Payments) providers played increasing roles. Meanwhile, there was a decrease in the use of informal sector service providers. These findings are consistent with the governments policy to promote formal service providers and integrate technology into the provision of financial services. Money transfers and payments, deposits/ savings, and loan services were the types of financial services most used by households. The survey showed an increase in the access rate of deposits/savings services (from 92.5% in 2013 to 94.2% in 2016), as well as a higher percentage of voluntarily-excluded households due mainly to a decrease in disposable income. For loan services, there was a slight increase in access rate (from 92.5% in 2013 to 94.2% in 2016). Most of these loans were disbursed by SFIs while semi-formal sector service providers such as village funds played increasingly important roles. In line with technology advancement and a higher number of e-Payment service providers, the access rate for money transfer and payment services improved (from 96.9% in 2013 to 98.6% in 2016) along with a substantial increase in usage rate (from 56.9% in 2013 to 75.3% in 2016). Households also preferred to pay service providers directly (e.g. electricity & waterworks authority and telecommunication companies) rather than pay through financial service providers. Analyzing the service channels used by households, it was found that despite having a broad range of service channels available, commercial banks and SFIs branches and ATMs remained the most highly used channels. In addition, the slightly higher percentage of households accessing financial services through m