Global financial service provider American Express has refreshed its Platinum Card benefits in Thailand and is accelerating card acceptance in a bid to grow its business in the country.
Prom Sirisant, vice-president and Thailand country manager at American Express, said the nation is one of the company's priority markets.
"In Thailand, our strategy is to be a leader in the premium and super-premium segments with our products and customer service by accelerating merchant acceptance," said Mr Prom.
"We see potential in the premium segment as the younger generation becomes increasingly affluent -- Millennials and Generation Z customers already make up more than half of our global acquisitions."
He said as American Express cardholders emerge from the pandemic, the company is committed to providing best-in-class card benefits in the premium segment as it recognises they seek unique and interesting experiences.
"That's why we refreshed our Platinum Card benefits recently to complement our card members' new lifestyles, providing them more value," said Mr Prom.
The effort to accelerate card acceptance in Thailand is so that more members can use their cards at more places, he said.
From 2017-21, the company increased coverage outside the US by 128%, from 16 million to 36.5 million locations. It plans to continue increasing coverage as well as improving perceptions of coverage among cardholders and merchants, said Mr Prom.
Last year American Express reported strong growth in Thailand compared with 2019, especially for Thai cardholders' spending in foreign countries. Foreign transactions rose by more than 100% in 2022 compared with 2019.
"Our card members are travelling overseas once again, with the top travel destinations New York, London, Tokyo, Singapore and Hong Kong," he said.
The company also observed cardholders going on "staycations" and domestic holidays even as international borders reopened -- its top three merchants for growth in Thailand are hotels.
Mr Prom said the pandemic taught the company that things can change quickly. It is important to focus on sustainable long-term growth, remaining agile to adapt to different situations, he said.
Regarding increasing financial cybercrime in Thailand, Mr Prom said American Express takes fraud prevention seriously and its security systems continually monitor cardholders' spending patterns to detect any unusual purchases, contacting customers immediately if it suspects fraud.
"We've deployed what we believe to be the largest, most advanced machine learning [ML] system in the financial services industry, having invested in artificial intelligence/ML over a decade ago," he said.
"Our ML algorithms are used to monitor in real-time more than US$1 trillion worth of card transactions annually around the world."
American Express also encourages customers to be vigilant and aware of scams such as phishing.
Consumers should enrol in two-factor authentication to prevent fraudsters from accessing their accounts, even if they have a username and password, Mr Prom said.
