KBank targets more deposits from wealthy customers
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Kasikornbank plans to acquire more deposits from the country's 150,000 affluent and high-net-worth individuals.
“We aim to increase our share by 10 percentage points this year from 50 per cent in assets under management from affluent individuals. That means we have to expand the customer base to the provinces and offer exclusive services at our Wisdom centres,” Krisada Lamsam, senior executive vice president, said yesterday.
KBank aims to increase de-posits from premium customers to Bt910 billion this year from Bt780 billion currently, of which Bt410 billion is from affluent customers with deposits of Bt10 million to Bt50 million and Bt370 billion from high-net-worth customers with deposits above Bt50 million.
Premium deposits account for 70 per cent of KBank’s deposit base of Bt1.25 trillion. Those are important customers and they are increasing by 4.5 per cent per year.
The bank provides two kinds of services to wealthy customers – financial in terms of investment advisory and private banking services and non-financial, which is Wisdom, the exclusive centre that provide full facilities, including safe-deposit boxes.
More boxes
High-end people consider asset safety a priority, and the number of boxes is likely not enough to serve them. The bank will install more boxes at the Wisdom centres, especially those in the upcountry market, to expand its customer and deposit bases.
KBank yesterday launched Wisdom at Sofitel So Bangkok, which is the third centre outside its branch network. The location provides 1,502 boxes to wealthy customers free of charge.
Ten mini Wisdom centres in large provinces will be added this year to the 30 centres currently, Krisada said.
Of the estimated 150,000 affluent individuals in Thailand, 75,000 are depositors at KBank. The bank projects 960,000 affluent customers by year-end, he said.
Chatchai Payuhanaveechai, executive vice president, said the Wisdom centre expansion and focus on the upper crust were part of the bank’s plan to secure customers before deposit protection is reduced to Bt1 million per bank per account.
Affluent customers also use many bank products. They have on average five each, more than middle-income customers with three products and mass customers with 2.8 products.
