I tried to open bank accounts for business in 2024 in Thailand. Here’s my experience.

I recently registered a new company. To continue doing any kind of financial activity, I need a bank account. So I’ve tried opening accounts with 3 banks: SCB, KTB, and KBank. Let’s go through each of them.

SCB (Siam Commercial Bank)

SCB was my first choice as I was with them when I ran my previous company. Nowadays, you don’t interact with the bank but with the software they provide. And their software for business (SCB Business Anywhere) is quite intuitive.

To open an account with SCB, you need the following documents: Company Affidavit (?????????????), Certified Copy of Shareholder List (???.5), and Shareholder’s ID.

I was surprised to learn that they no longer require the “Board of Directors meeting minutes.” I’ll discuss about this later.

Everything seems fine, except they have some limitations.

First, SCB is the only one on the list that does not accept new companies (younger than 30 days). This is a weird policy since a bank account is one of the first things a new company should have. They simply said no.

Another limitation, they do not allow cross-district account openings. This means you need to open an account at the specific branch according to the registered address of your company. Again, the only bank on the list that still has some kind of location restriction. This is kinda disappointing. I didn’t expect to see this kind of problem in 2024.

For those reasons, despite having great experience with them, I’m unable to continue using their services due to those restrictions.

KTB (Krungthai Bank)

KTB was my next attempt. This one is required for me as I need an account for the Digital Startup program. You can open an account with them regardless of the company’s age and registered address, which is cool!

Their business software is called Krungthai Business. I tried this before. It’s above average but I still found it not as intuitive as SCB’s one.

To open an account with KTB, you need a similar set of documents: Company Affidavit (?????????????), Certified Copy of Shareholder List (???.5), Shareholder’s ID, AND the Board of Directors meeting minutes.

KTB is the only one here that still requires the Board of Directors meeting minutes. It is basically a document that says all directors agree to open a bank account.

This makes no sense in my case as a sole owner. It’s kinda ridiculous that I need to print a paper to declare that I agree with myself to open an account, even though I was there in person.

One last thing, you need 500 THB, in cash only. So I must walk to the ATM and withdraw a single 500 note.

KBank (Kasikorn Bank)

I have no prior business experience with KBank, only personal ones. It’s one of the easiest to open an account with, requiring the same sets of documents as SCB, but without any of their restrictions.

Their business software is kinda complicated. They have K BIZ, available on the web, and K SME, as a mobile application. They will replace K SME with a new app soon, so I only registered for K BIZ on the web. Their web app is ok but not as good as the other two. And there is no English interface.

Verdict

If you want to open an account quickly, KBank is the easiest. But if you plan to actively use their software, SCB has the best experience.

Have you tried any other banks? Let me know in the comments.

Originally published at https://www.cluelessfounder.com.