Joint panel on digital money supervision to be set up in Thailand

BANGKOK, January 4 (TNA) - The Thai Ministry of Finance will soon set up a joint task force with other concerned agencies to comprehensively oversee the public use and investment in digital money. Pornchai Thiravej, an advisor on financial economy to the ministry's Fiscal Policy Office (FPO), told journalists on January 3 that his office plans to soon set up the joint task force with the Bank of Thailand (BOT), the Securities and Exchange Commission, Thailand (SEC) and the Anti Money Laundering Office (AMLO) to work out appropriate policy approaches to practically supervise and control the public use and investment in the spreading digital money, namely Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin. Pornchai, who is also the Finance Ministry's Deputy Spokesman, said the joint move complied with a recent order of Thai Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-ocha, who wants all relevant agencies to expedite disseminating proper information and creating awareness among the public on the use and investment of the digital money, as well as on precautions about the cryptocurrency. "The joint move is in response to the prime minister's instruction following more use of the digital money by local shops and more investment or even speculations of the cryptocurrency, causing some confusions and raising questions among the public about the legitimacy of the digital money", the deputy spokesman explained. According to the deputy spokesman, a joint meeting recently of the concerned agencies resolved that like in other countries, the digital money is non-legitimacy, as it is not officially recognized as the legal medium of exchange although the blockchain-based cryptocurrency has potential to be developed as a more efficient tool for financial services and useful innovations and as the values of the digital money mainly rely on demand and supply with no grounded economic fundamentals and, thus, remain unstable and at risk for holders and traders. Besides, people may be fallen victims of scamps or fraudulent gangs who lure them to invest in the digital money with short-term high returns but long-term losses, or to involve in illegal transactions, like money laundering, as there has been no comprehensive and efficient detection system for the sources and the identity of the digital money and its holders. (TNA)