In Thailand, household debt has surged to its highest level in years, reaching roughly 16.3 trillion THB: about 87% of GDP. Stagnant incomes, rising living costs, and easy access to credit have created a perfect storm, leaving many households borrowing just to cover essentials like groceries and utilities. Non-performing loans now exceed 1.19 trillion THB, signaling growing financial stress across the country.
For financial providers, this environment brings new complexity. Rising NPL volumes, shifting customer expectations, and evolving compliance regulations are reshaping the collections landscape in profound ways. In this guide, we’ll examine the key challenges facing collections teams in Thailand and explore how advanced AI and analytics are helping organizations stay ahead.
The Bank of Thailand’s recent approval of three digital banking license applicants marks a turning point for the country’s financial landscape. These new entrants are expected to be cloud-native, agile, and customer-centric from day one, setting a new benchmark for digital-first banking.
Thailand already has one of the highest smartphone penetration rates in the region, and consumer behavior reflects this shift. Nearly 90% of Thais say they are interested in virtual banking, and 69% prefer to use digital channels to engage with their banks specifically during times of financial hardship.
For collections teams, this trend is impossible to ignore. Extending digital engagement into collections is an essential step. By reaching customers through their preferred channels, teams create opportunities to improve engagement, accelerate payments, and deliver a better customer experience, all while staying competitive in an increasingly digital world.
But going digital isn’t enough on its own. In a market where automation and self-service are becoming standard, maintaining a human touch is more important than ever before.
Accenture’s Global Banking Consumer Study highlights the gap: only 41% of Thai respondents rated their primary bank’s customer service as excellent, and more than half (53%) reported difficulties getting human support when they needed it. This underscores a clear truth: while customers value speed and convenience, they still want empathy and personalized assistance, especially during moments of financial stress.
For organizations looking to stand out as more banks embrace digital-first strategies, humanization will be key. This means blending AI-driven efficiency with options for live support, customer-centric messaging, and proactive outreach.
As innovation accelerates, so does oversight. Thailand’s high private-sector leverage, political focus on cost of living, and global conduct trends signal tighter scrutiny of collections practices, hardship management, and fair treatment standards. For collections leaders, this must be embedded into every interaction moving forward.
The stakes are high. Aggressive or inconsistent practices risk fines, reputational damage, and costly remediation programs. To stay ahead, organizations need to move beyond manual checks and fragmented processes. Implementing rule-driven workflows ensures that every account follows the same compliance logic, while systematic hardship classification helps identify vulnerable customers early. Robust call scripting and audit-ready data make it possible to demonstrate “good conduct” to regulators, not just claim it.
These regulatory expectations aren’t just limited to consumer protection. Thailand’s Personal Data Protection Act, fully enforced since 2022, has ushered in stricter requirements for how financial institutions collect, store, and share customer data. Recent enforcement trends show growing penalties for breaches and inadequate oversight, while new rules on cross-border transfers and BCRs add complexity for banks operating regionally. At the same time, sector-specific regulations and upcoming open banking initiatives will require even greater transparency and consent-driven data flows.
For collections leaders, this means credit and collections data can’t remain siloed or loosely managed. Manual reporting and fragmented systems expose institutions to compliance risk and operational inefficiency. The path forward is clear: consolidate data sources, implement standardized taxonomies, and adopt solutions that provide real-time dashboards and audit-ready logs.
From rising household debt and digital-first customer expectations to tighter regulatory oversight, the pressures facing collections teams in Thailand share a common theme: they demand speed, precision, and adaptability at scale. Traditional systems and manual processes simply can’t keep up.
But AI offers a way forward. Adoption is accelerating across Thailand’s financial sector: nearly 18% of organizations have already implemented AI, and more than 70% plan to follow. The Bank of Thailand is actively supporting this shift through AI risk-management guidelines and innovation sandboxes.
For collections leaders, the benefits are tangible:
Institutions that act now will gain a decisive advantage: faster recoveries, lower operational costs, stronger compliance, and improved customer relationships. Those that hesitate risk falling behind in a market where digital speed and regulatory rigor define success.
AI is the foundation for modern collections. The question isn’t whether to adopt it, but how quickly you can make it part of your strategy.
C&R Software’s Debt Manager brings native AI capabilities designed for the next generation of collections. Leveraging machine learning, large language models, and an agentic AI framework, it enables collections teams to work smarter, not harder. The result is a streamlined approach that meets consumer expectations for digital engagement while embedding compliance into every step of the process.
This proven solution is trusted by leading institutions worldwide, including 5 of the top 10 UK banks, 7 of the top 15 US banks, and 2 of Singapore’s 3 largest banks. Debt Manager helps organizations scale efficiently, reduce risk, and deliver a customer experience that builds trust.
Learn more at inquiries@crsoftware.com.