As Thailand’s financial technology enters a fully digital era, using a bulk payment system (BPS) has become important to facilitate faster, more efficient, and more widespread financial transactions. A BPS drives the modernization of the financial system and improves overall efficiency for organizations.

In this article, we explain Thailand’s BPS, including how it works and its advantages. We also explore businesses in Thailand that use BPSs, how to get started with one, and solutions that support BPS use via application programming interfaces (APIs) for various types of transactions. This can help businesses manage large payments easily and securely.

What’s in this article?

• What is a bulk payment system (BPS)?
  
• Get to know Thailand’s bulk payment system
  
• Advantages of a bulk payment system
  
• Which businesses are suitable for bulk payment systems?
  
• Considerations before using a bulk payment system
  
• How to use a bulk payment system
  
• How Stripe Payments can help
  

What is a bulk payment system (BPS)?

A BPS allows businesses to transfer money to multiple accounts simultaneously in one transaction. It makes group transactions convenient and fast, reduces steps and complexity, and eliminates the need to process payments individually. A BPS is particularly suitable for organizations that need to pay a large number of employees, suppliers, or partners, including salaries, product payments, commissions, and tax refunds.

Get to know Thailand’s bulk payment system

BPSs are widely used in both the public and private sectors in Thailand. The system is often referred to by different names, such as “bulk payment,” “bulk credit,” or “bulk transfer.” A BPS supports the simultaneous transfer of multiple transactions in real time under the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 20022 standard.

BPS transfers usually have two options: same-day transfers (referred to as “DC2”) and next-day transfers (referred to as “DC3”). There is a limit of ฿2 million per transaction, while the daily limit depends on the requirements of each service provider.

Leading financial institutions are developing BPSs that easily connect to organizations’ payment systems through APIs, accounting systems, or enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. This can help them meet the market demand for convenience, speed, and security. For example, financial solutions—such as Stripe Payments—offer payout APIs that support various payment methods, including cross-border payments, money transfers to multiple accounts at once (i.e., batch payments), or split payments.

Advantages of a bulk payment system

Using a BPS has many benefits and advantages for an organization, including the following:

• Enhances operational efficiency
  Users can compile multiple payment items into a single file and upload it to the system. They can also schedule payments to have the system automatically transfer funds on the desired date and time.
  
• Assures on-time payments
  Payments are made quickly and on time, which can enhance a business’s professional image and build trust with employees and partners.
  
• Reduces errors
  BPSs can usually connect with databases or ERP systems. This eliminates the need to enter data multiple times, which can reduce errors.
  
• Saves time and resources
  BPSs can save operational costs, reduce paperwork, and minimize manual data entry for repetitive transactions.
  
• Provides high security
  Automated consolidated payments help reduce the risk of human interference, which can lower the chances of fraud and provide clear access to data for approvers, auditors, and operators.
  
• Tracks status and reports results
  The system can track payments and send notifications about transfer status. This can enhance transparency and verifiability. In addition, all transactions are fully recorded, allowing for systematic review.
  
• Supports business expansion
  A BPS is suitable for an organization with a large number of transactions, such as payroll, daily wages, commissions, or supplier expenses. It helps expand the business without needing to increase accounting staff.
  

Which businesses are suitable for bulk payment systems?

There are many businesses in Thailand that can improve operational efficiency by implementing a BPS:

• Financial institutions: These organizations can use BPSs to transfer money to multiple customers on the same day. They can also use BPSs to pay returns or interest and transfer funds to multiple business partners.
  
• Ecommerce: Large ecommerce companies—such as Lazada and Shopee—use BPSs to pay revenue to the stores on their platforms.
  
• Large businesses: Businesses can use BPSs to transfer salaries, benefits, bonuses, or overtime pay to a large number of employees every month. This can include consumer goods and petroleum companies and large department stores.
  
• Industrial factories: Factories can use BPSs to pay a large number of employee salaries and pay multiple suppliers for raw materials.
  
• Businesses with large customer bases: A BPS can be useful for businesses that need to transfer commissions, pay entitlement claims and compensation, or refund large amounts of money to customers. This can include insurance companies and direct sales companies.
  
• Real estate and construction: These companies can use BPSs to pay wages to multiple contractors and suppliers per project.
  
• Logistics and transportation: These businesses regularly pay for shipping costs, driver commissions, or service fees to several suppliers—such as Grab and LINE MAN—to cover wages for drivers and other partners.
  
• Service platforms: These businesses can use BPSs to pay wages to a large number of partners or freelancers on a daily or weekly basis. Service platforms include freelance platforms such as Fastwork, Fiverr, and Upwork.
  
• Franchises or branch networks: These businesses pay commissions, compensation, or revenue sharing to several employees, branches, or affiliated companies.
  
• Government agencies: A BPS can be used to transfer salaries, welfare, financial assistance, pensions, or large allowances to the public, regional government agencies, and local authorities.
  
• Hospitals and public health: A BPS can be used to pay the salaries of a large number of medical personnel and staff or pay service fees to clinics.
  
• Educational institutions: These organizations pay a large number of teachers, lecturers, and staff members.
  
• Nonprofit organizations: These groups—such as The Chaipattana Foundation, The Thai Red Cross Society, and The Mirror Foundation—can use money transfers to support target groups or donation recipients conveniently, quickly, and transparently.
  

Considerations before using a bulk payment system

Before implementing a BPS, consider the service provider and its requirements based on the following factors:

• Data security and access rights: The system should define access rights and transaction approval according to the roles of different users by using data encryption and two-factor authentication (2FA).
  
• System connection: Choose a system that can easily connect via API or accounting and ERP systems, such as Stripe’s payment integration system.
  
• Audit history: The system should allow review of past payment history, which can make it easier to detect errors or undesirable behavior and safely manage or reverse transactions.
  
• Payment volume and frequency: If a business needs to make frequent large payments and transfers, an automated payment system—such as a BPS—is an efficient option that can save a lot of time.
  
• Fees: Compare per-transaction transfer fees and monthly service charges from BPS providers.
  
• Operational requirements: Consider manual processing if payments have specific terms or occur at different frequencies depending on the occasion.
  

How to use a bulk payment system

After selecting a service provider, you can start using a BPS by following these steps:

• Prepare payment information
  Collect payment information, such as the recipient’s name, account number, amount, destination bank, and transfer description or details. Then, save the information in the file format (e.g., text, comma-separated value [CSV], or Excel file) the bank or service provider requires.
  
• Log in and upload data
  Log in to the provider’s BPS—via web or API—and upload the prepared file.
  
• Verify accuracy
  The system will display a summary of all items for you to verify. Alert them if there are errors, such as duplicate information, incorrect formats, or invalid destination accounts.
  
• Confirm items
  After reviewing the items and verifying accurate and complete information, you can confirm the money transfer using a one-time password (OTP), electronic signature, or other security measures.
  
• Process items
  The BPS provider will send payment batches to the central system for group payments.
  
• Receive transfer status notification
  The system will notify you about the transaction status, such as whether the transfer was successful or unsuccessful. It will also provide a reason, such as an incorrect account number or insufficient funds. Then, you can check or download the report results from the service provider’s system.
  

How Stripe Payments can help

Stripe Payments provides a unified, global payments solution that helps any business—from scaling startups to global enterprises—accept payments online, in person, and around the world.

Stripe Payments can help you:

• Optimize your checkout experience: Create a frictionless customer experience and save thousands of engineering hours with prebuilt payment UIs, access to 125+ payment methods, and Link, a wallet built by Stripe.
  
• Expand to new markets faster: Reach customers worldwide and reduce the complexity and cost of multicurrency management with cross-border payment options, available in 195 countries across 135+ currencies.
  
• Unify payments in person and online: Build a unified commerce experience across online and in-person channels to personalize interactions, reward loyalty, and grow revenue.
  
• Improve payments performance: Increase revenue with a range of customizable, easy-to-configure payment tools, including no-code fraud protection and advanced capabilities to improve authorization rates.
  
• Move faster with a flexible, reliable platform for growth: Build on a platform designed to scale with you, with 99.999% historical uptime and industry-leading reliability.
  

Learn more about how Stripe Payments can power your online and in-person payments, or get started today.