Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the issue of banking here in Thailand. I am quoting an article from the Pattaya Mail, pattayamail.com, written by Mr. Barry Kenyon, the article is titled: Expat dream shattered in Thailand: cockup, conspiracy or just plain nonsense? So to understand the context of this he actually mentions me in this article and tip of the hat to Mr. Kenyon, and I really, really do appreciate your accolades included in that article; really, I thank you. But the point of this video is talking about all of this banking stuff.  Unfortunately he is commenting on a video that was put out on the internet talking about this conspiracy theory basically to go after middle income retirees here in Thailand. I made a response where I said a lot of this is nonsense. Mr. Kenyon kind of has now chimed in and is sort of talking about both things but going to this issue of accounts being frozen, I want to add some clarification onto this. 

Quoting directly: "Opening bank accounts: It is certainly true that tourists, (those without a Non-immigrant Visa) have a near zero chance of opening a Thai Bank Account right now." Yeah, we have talked about that in other videos. They are not only having problems getting Bank Accounts open, and by having problems it is nearly impossible to the point of truly impossible, but also as we have discussed in other videos, they may be shutting down accounts of Tourist Visa holders if they can't later show that they have upgraded into some kind of more permanent visa status most notably a Non-immigrant Visa. That said, quoting further: "There are indeed rumours that even some existing accounts may be frozen for up to 4 months if banking authorities suspect the cash has been paid in by third party to qualify for a friend's or customer's Visa.” What I think they are talking about here is the practice of temporarily putting money into an account in order to get a document, an Affidavit effectively, to go and get a Visa Extension based on Retirement Visa status or Retirement Visa based on 800,000 Baht in a bank account. In the past we would hear tell of basically folks, they would go down, they’d go to the bank, they’d throw money in – it wasn’t illegal, it's never been illegal – it would be a temporary loan for like an hour to show the balance. They would get a letter from the bank, “hey here is the balance”, they’d go into Immigration, Immigration would go ahead and issue the extension.

Now one “Big Bank”, that's all I'll say, seems to be saying, "hey if you want to do this" - I think “frozen” might be, not necessarily the wrong terminology, but it may provide a lack of context - basically they are saying, "hey, if you want to get this affidavit, you have got to show that these funds have been here for at least 4 months". Now to be clear, that is only one bank that is requiring that right now. Our contacts at Immigration have told us, “Hey that's not us requesting that; that's the bank's policy that is driving that; we don't need that". Frankly in some cases, they are kind of miffed that the whole thing has been blown up to the point that it has. That said, understand, it is slightly different than being frozen. What they are saying is you need to hold it here for us to issue the document that you then use it Immigration. So there is a nuance of difference in that.

While I am talking about that, it is probably worth pointing out that I do do deep dives into this type of analysis in our paid news service, Integrity News Service. If you are interested in that please feel free to email us at: [email protected], you can get in on that. Also the other thing to understand regarding what's going on with me at least is I have also got Pancake Palace down here in downtown Bangkok. I'll put a link in the description below. For those who are interested in good old American diner style food, as well as breakfast anytime, including pancakes. You may want to check out Pancake Palace: we have got buffalo wings, we've got cheeseburgers, we've got chilli bowls. It's downtown Bangkok, link in the description below. 

Quoting further: "There are indeed rumours that even some existing accounts may be frozen for up to 4 months if banking authorities suspect that cash has been paid in by a third party to qualify for a friend or customer’s visa.” Yeah, again it is this practice of temporarily putting the money in, getting the document, getting the Visa and then removing the money. Quoting further: "The problem is that Thailand, unlike her neighbours, has been very lax about banking regulations for many years." Well I would kind of disagree with Mr. Kenyon’s wording on that. Look, Thailand has just been free for many years. We haven't had all this massive banking scrutiny and oversight which frankly I don't think is overly necessary, but that's my opinion, I have gone into that at great length in many other videos. Quoting further: “A whole series of abuses, relating to fraud and money laundering, is leading to much tightening. It’s certainly a cockup, but for how long is debatable.”

Yeah, it remains to be seen if this Affidavit issue is going to continue to be an issue with this Big Bank. Meanwhile, we here in our office are finding banking solutions for clients in other banks where they are not being so tight with regard to documentation associated with banking. That said, again you are going to need to basically be ready to have funds on hand to prove up one's financial ability to support a Retirement Visa here in the Kingdom of Thailand.