Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are asking the question, 'are there going to be major changes to Thai Banking in 2025'? 

What I will say going into 2025 here at the end of 2024 is while I don't think in the end, we will actually see substantive changes to rules pertaining to banking in Thailand, I think we are going to go through a period where it is going to seem like it could change and then it ultimately won't.

What am I talking about here? Well I have discussed this at length in other videos because I am rather upset about the fact that or what I perceive to be essentially, foreign undue influence in Thailand especially in the form of tax agents especially from the United States of America, and this massive push for OECD; membership in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, sort of a western brainchild if you will. One of these supranational organizations which quite frankly I'm usually pretty open to Thailand being involved in these kinds of things. But in my opinion, I think this is horrible for Thailand; I think it will have a tremendous detrimental impact on Thailand. Also, it is not a foregone conclusion that she is joining this organization. As we have discussed in prior videos, Thailand is merely talking about joining it. From what I'm seeing, there is no good reason why Thailand should join. They have already done things like scare the ever-loving bejeezus out of a bunch of the foreigners here in Thailand by sending out documentation pertaining to so-called Common Reporting Standards and practices whatever. But they are telling people they have got to fill this stuff out. It's freaking out the retirees regarding this stuff. As I have discussed in other videos, it's not mandatory; I don't even know why they're talking about it if it isn't mandatory unless they are trying to push some agenda or trying to make some agenda seem like a foregone conclusion when in fact it is not. 

So, as I said at the beginning of this video, while I believe that yes we're going to go through this kind of I'll call it "illusion phase" where especially the media is going to push out the notion that, "oh this is already happening and Thailand is already in all of these changes to banking rules,' the reality is it's not. As discussed in prior videos it's going to take from what I remember, a minimum of 5 years for Thailand to become a joint member of this, to sign on, and I don't think that's a foregone conclusion. I have to believe there are other reasonably-minded Thais, especially in policy positions, who are looking at this and saying, "what are we getting here? where's the benefit?" They're probably asking the same questions about other supranational organizations - I am looking at you there BRICS - as well. Again, Thailand is very aware of what her national interests are. In my opinion she doesn't really need to join anything else. I did a video recently where I said, isn't APEC and ASEAN enough? I mean it works for Thailand, it has for a long time, why does she need to be involved in anything else? 

In conclusion, the point I am trying to make is again while we may go through this period of "illusion time" where it seems like everything with banking is changing, I think there is a very strong and real possibility that as a practical matter, nothing substantive will change with regard to Banking in 2025.