Mastercard, Thailand Post and 2C2P Launch Southeast Asia’s First Prepaid Card for Small Businesses

Prepaid Mastercard® gives small business in Thailand access to digital payments services and growth-centric B2B solutions.

Bangkok, Thailand, 24 November 2021 – Mastercard is partnering with Thailand Post and 2C2P Plus, a subsidiary of global payments provider 2C2P, to launch the Thailand Post Business Prepaid Mastercard® card, which will allow local seller businesses in Thailand to quickly and securely receive cash-on-delivery (COD) payments for e-commerce and social commerce purchases made through Wallet@Post application.

The card will be the first of its kind in Southeast Asia and will provide greater support and flexibility for local businesses using Thailand Post’s platform. The Thailand Post Business Prepaid Mastercard® card integrates directly with Wallet@Post, a mobile wallet that Thailand Post and 2C2P Plus launched in January 2020 that allows local businesses to receive and withdraw payments to their bank accounts when customers pay for their purchases via COD to the postman or at the Thailand Post branch. The card integration will further reduce fund transfer time from five to seven days to just two days, and provide greater flexibility for small businesses.

After payments are received via Wallet@Post, small businesses may use the card domestically or internationally, just like they would with any other Mastercard® card. Besides having payments in one platform, using the new card will help the businesses’ credit rating.

Thailand’s e-commerce sector is set to expand in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic accelerates reliance on online commerce. Estimates point to the e-commerce sector growing by 35 percent year-on-year. Digital payments are also an integral part of everyday lives in Thailand. According to the Mastercard Safety & Security Index 2020, Thai online consumers mainly pay on a COD basis but now frequently use credit cards for domestic purchases.

As consumers increasingly move towards digital forms of payment and online commerce, many SMEs are conducting more of their business online, such as finding suppliers or connecting with B2B service providers.

The Thailand Post Business Prepaid Mastercard® card gives small businesses a fast, convenient, and secure way to pay expenses, manage orders, and keep track of sales balances and business outgoings in an increasingly digital commercial environment. The card has also been designed to include a range of special services geared specifically towards small businesses, such as project management tools, CRM software, and cloud solutions.

Most importantly, switching to digital for both incoming and outgoing payments will provide small businesses with a means to enhance their revenue transparency, increasing their ability to demonstrate their creditworthiness to financial institutions. Moving forward, this will open up opportunities for even SMEs to access credit in the future, which in turn will further their capacity to expand their businesses.

“The role of the postal service in people’s lives has evolved and has been especially crucial in the ‘new normal’, which is why we’ve evolved to ensure we’re meeting the changing needs of the consumers and businesses that rely on us. Working with both 2C2P Plus and Mastercard has allowed us to accelerate our evolution with this first-of-its-kind payments product. Together, we will be able to bridge the payments technology gap between Thai shoppers’ demand for cash-on-delivery payments, and SMEs’ need to digitize their sales while expanding the customer base,” said Dhanant Subhadrabandhu, Chief Executive Officer of Thailand Post Co., Ltd.

“Even though Thai consumers are moving towards using digital payments for e-commerce, many still rely on cash-on-delivery which impacts transaction completion rates for merchants. Our initial goal in working with Thailand Post was to find a payments system which would combine their expertise in delivery with small businesses’ need for fast and seamless payments. Now, with Mastercard, we’ve expanded again what’s possible for online sellers in Thailand, connecting their revenues with a card that can be used to address a wide range of business needs,” said Piyachart Ratanaprasartporn, Chief Executive Officer, 2C2P Thailand.

“The pandemic has revealed a greater sense of urgency for businesses and nations to digitize in order to mitigate the economic effects of future crises, while driving inclusion in the growing digital economy. In collaboration with Thailand Post and 2C2P, Mastercard is excited to roll out the Thailand Post Business Prepaid Mastercard® card – a smart solution that can address multiple pain points of Thailand’s small businesses while enabling them to transform for the post-COVID world. The prepaid card is also part of Mastercard’s ongoing financial inclusion global efforts to bring a total of 1 billion people and 50 million micro and small businesses into the digital economy by 2025,” said Aileen Chew, Country Manager, Thailand and Myanmar, Mastercard.