Thai ATMs to shut down briefly

Kasikornbank and CIMB Bank Thai will temporarily suspend electronic banking services this weekend for a major systems upgrade.

KBank has 8 million customers that wil be affected by the temporary disruption of its 8,000 ATMs and cash deposit machines nationwide from 9.30pm Friday until 5am on Saturday. Internet and mobile money transfers will also be unavailable, but credit and debit cards will be usable.

"We'll have 30% more cash than usual at branches this weekend to serve customers during the disruption," said Art Wichiencharoen, a senior vice-president.

On the other hand, CIMBT will close banking services on Saturday and Sunday, resuming next Monday at normal service hours.

Services at all branches, booth and mobile exchanges, ATMs, cash cards, CDMs, internet banking, phone banking and passbook update machines will be closed during the weekend as part of a platform upgrade across Asean that will change customers' account numbers and banking service changes starting next Monday.

A bank statement said the change will not affect deposits, loan account balances or interest.

CIMBT does not have a policy regarding contacting clients about account changes but said its call center will be available as usual.