Rise in pay draws BAY move

Bank of Ayudhya (BAY) is gearing up to grow its savings deposits, plastic cards and personal loans after the government's planned increase in the minimum salary for civil servants.

White-collared workers will have more disposable income if the government's planned rise in the minimum monthly salary to Bt15,000 for civil servants takes place, and that would likely boost savings and loans, said Thakorn Piyapan, the bank's executive vice president. Larger companies could follow suit for their staff with salaries below or equivalent to Bt15,000.

The savings-deposit and personal-loan markets are expected to grow 20 per cent next year and BAY is preparing for this. The debit-card market is also expected to expand sharply.

The bank needs to move quickly to increase the number of savings accounts and debit cards to meet likely demand from higher-income people next year, Thakorn said.

Currently, BAY has 4.2 million savings accounts. The total number of debit and automated-teller-machine cards is 3 million and next year's figure is forecast at 4 million. Debit cards alone now number 1.2 million.

Thakorn said the bank would focus on debit cards because they facilitate cross-selling.

The bank yesterday launched Krungsri Debit First Choice, which consists of four functions: debit card, ATM card, cash card and instalment card. The latter two functions aim at strengthening Krungsri debit cards and encouraging retail customers to apply for saving accounts so they can use the cards.

Krungsri Debit First Choice is expected to distribute 50,000 new cards by the end of the year and 100,000 throughout next year.

The bank will launch two more debit cards in the fourth quarter of this year.

Thanachart Bank's senior vice president for unsecured lending and payment, Jean Marc Dallaire, said the bank's credit-card business could gain from the planned salary rise, as its major customers are civil servants.

Thanachart Drive and Siam City Bank have a combined 570,000 credit cards. Thanachart aims to increase the number of credit cards to 1 million within three years with a 10-per-cent market share.