Mastercard and Thailand’s NITMX Team to Promote Real-Time Payments

Mastercard says it is expanding its relationship with National ITMX (NITMX), the Thailand-based developer and service provider of electronic payments.

This effort, the company announced Tuesday (June 17), will power PromptPay, the most widely used real-time payments (RTP) platform in Southeast Asia, to fuel the Thai digital economy.

“The Thai digital payments ecosystem continues to grow, driven by the widespread adoption of PromptPay,” Mastercard said in a news release.

Launched more than eight years ago, PromptPay has seen a surge in usage, the company said, with more than 81 million registrants as of the end of March of this year.

“In that month alone, 2.1 billion transactions with a total value of more than 4.43 trillion baht were recorded on PromptPay, a 13% increase year-on-year,” the release added. “This reflects the country’s improving financial inclusion and widespread adoption of PromptPay as a ubiquitous payment method for everyday transactions among individuals.”

Mastercard and NITMX have signed a new, multi-year, deal which will focus on signing up more consumers and businesses in Thailand. PromptPay, the release added, lets merchants display a QR code and receive payments directly to their bank accounts, lessening their dependence on cash or the need to visit a bank or invest in payment terminals.

This allows “even the smallest of merchants, including mobile vendors, food stall owners and tuk tuk riders, to go cashless and accept digital payments — connecting small business owners to the digital financial ecosystem and bringing more opportunities to them,” the release said.

PYMNTS examined the importance of instant payments in a report last week, noting that instant methods had evolved into a “vital strategic tool” for businesses that have a large share of ad hoc payments that need to be sent urgently.

“Enterprises with a high need for urgent ad hoc payments are significantly more inclined to adopt instant payment methods,” that report said.

In fact, research from PYMNTS Intelligence and Ingo Payments, in the report “Instant Payments: A Strategic Tool for Vendor Relationships and Urgent Transactions,” shows that businesses with elevated urgent payment needs were five times more likely to employ instant payments to uphold strong vendor relationships.

“This necessity extends beyond mere operational efficiency; it is deeply rooted in the business need to avert disruptions, guarantee timely service or delivery, and, crucially, strengthen and safeguard positive vendor relationships,” PYMNTS wrote.