Thailand Opens Certain Services And Other Activities To Foreign Business

Thailand has taken another step toward liberalizing its foreign business framework, exempting additional service activities and derivatives brokerage or agency businesses from the licensing requirements of the Foreign Business Act (FBA).

Since the FBA came into effect, Thailand has taken a measured approach to opening its economy to foreign investment. While the FBA regulates foreign participation in businesses that may affect domestic interests, the framework has also evolved to allow foreign participation in certain business activities where sector-specific laws and regulatory frameworks already provide sufficient oversight, making additional FBA restrictions unnecessary. This is particularly true where Thai businesses are sufficiently capable of competing in certain service sectors, or where liberalization is intended to facilitate the provision of services among companies within the same corporate group.

Against this backdrop, two new ministerial regulations have been issued pursuant to the FBA.

Service Businesses Under the FBA

Under the FBA, certain categories of business are restricted for foreign operators. List 3 of the FBA sets out businesses that foreigners may operate only if they obtain a foreign business license (FBL) or a foreign business certificate (FBC), or unless a specific exemption applies.

List 3 (21) covers “other service businesses,” which is a catch-all provision that captures a wide range of service businesses not specifically enumerated elsewhere in the FBA. In practice, this means that most service activities carried on by foreigners in Thailand require an FBL or FBC unless otherwise exempted.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, the FBA provides a mechanism to address this breadth by empowering the Minister of Commerce to issue ministerial regulations excluding specific types of service businesses from List Three (21). Once a service business is so excluded, foreigners may operate it without obtaining an FBL or FBC.

Prior to the new regulations, four ministerial regulations had been issued to exempt specific services from list 3 (21) of the FBA. The exempted services have generally fallen within three principal categories:

• Services already governed by sector-specific laws, where market entry and business conduct are already regulated and supervised by the relevant sector regulator, making an additional FBA permission requirement duplicative.
• Intragroup services provided between affiliated entities within the same corporate group, which are considered less likely to have a material impact on competition in the broader Thai market.
• Services where the Thai market has reached sufficient readiness, with Thai businesses having developed adequate capabilities and competitive strength to operate alongside foreign participants.

Efforts to further remove additional service businesses from the restricted list had been under discussion for several years. Following an extended period of consideration and consultation, the Ministerial Regulation Prescribing Service Businesses Not Requiring Permission for Foreign Business Operations (No. 5), B.E. 2569 (2026) was published in the Government Gazette on August 28, 2026.

The regulation marks a significant step in Thailand’s opening of its service sectors to foreign investment, while maintaining the broader policy objective of ensuring that Thai businesses remain sufficiently prepared and protected as market access is expanded.

Exempted Service Businesses

The service businesses exempted by the ministerial regulation include:

• Securities business under the Securities and Exchange Act. The exemption has been expanded to cover loans provided for securities purchases and securities repurchase agreement transactions regulated under the Securities and Exchange Act.
• Services relating to derivatives where the underlying assets fall outside the scope of the Derivatives Act. The regulation introduces three additional services related to derivatives business, covering derivatives dealers, advisors, and fund managers in transactions involving underlying assets, or whose settlement is linked to foreign exchange rates or interest rates, subject to applicable requirements. Where Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) determines that these businesses need not be regulated, they fall outside the SEC’s regulatory scope and may be carried on without further regulatory requirements. On this basis, the Ministry of Commerce considers a separate FBA license unnecessary for foreign investors.
• Telecommunications services. The exemption applies only to telecom operators that do not have their own telecommunications network (type 1 license holders) and are of a nature appropriate for liberalized service provision under the applicable telecommunications regulatory framework.
• Treasury center business. This business is subject to regulation under the laws governing exchange control and is already supervised by the Bank of Thailand.
• Intragroup shared management services (administration, human resources, IT). The exemption expands the scope of previously permitted advisory services to include administrative, human resources, and information technology management services provided among qualified group companies that satisfy the applicable ownership and management control criteria.
• Intragroup domestic debt-guarantee services. This exemption applies exclusively to qualified affiliated group companies within the same corporate group, subject to the same ownership and management criteria as those applicable to intragroup shared management services, but with a higher applicable threshold.
• Premises leasing for financial and vending equipment. This applies to services involving the leasing of space for ATMs, financial service kiosks, and vending machines for the benefit of employees.
• Petroleum-drilling services under the law on petroleum. The exemption applies to petroleum drilling services provided by contractors directly engaged under contracts with concessionaires, production-sharing contractors, or service contractors under the law governing petroleum operations.

Brokerage or Agency Businesses

Issued on the same day (August 28, 2026), the Ministerial Regulation Prescribing Brokerage or Agency Businesses That Do Not Require Permission to Operate a Business of a Foreign Person B.E. 2569 (2026) exempts the following businesses from brokerage and agency restrictions under the FBA:

• Derivatives agents under the law governing derivatives, where the agent conducts transactions in derivatives whose underlying goods or variables are not subject to the law governing derivatives.
• Derivatives agents under the law governing derivatives, where the agent conducts transactions in derivatives that require cash settlement calculated by reference to an exchange rate or interest rate, and the derivatives transactions are conducted outside a derivatives exchange.

Guidance for Foreign Investors

These regulations signal the government’s continued commitment to modernizing the FBA’s foreign investment framework, aligning it more closely with Thailand’s economic development objectives and its international competitiveness agenda.

Businesses falling within any of the newly exempted categories should review their current FBA licensing arrangements, as an FBA license or foreign business certificate may no longer be required—reducing compliance costs and simplifying operations.

However, the liberalization discussed above involves exemption only from licensing requirements under the FBA. This exemption does not eliminate or replace any licenses, approvals, or registrations required under applicable sector-specific legislation.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.