K-Expert consultancy for retail customers
Kasikornbank is emphasising the role of financial advisory banking with the launch of the K-Expert consultancy service, which will help retail customers to manage their financial planning. Starting today, the bank will provide a K-Expert professional adv
KBank executive vice president Pakorn Partanapat yesterday said the bank had allocated more than Bt100 million for the intensive training of 800 experts. The number of experts will be increased to 2,000 next year to provide a full service to customers at every branch.
A KBank survey found that 40 per cent of customers would regard having a financial adviser at their branch as essential for financial management planning.
He said the bank had also learned from the survey that it should divide retails clients into three segments – mass, middle income and affluent – so as to offer appropriate products and services to meet each group’s demands.
Mass customers are graduates or first-jobbers who have no experience in financial management. K-Expert advisers will provide this category with simple advice, such as allocating 10 per cent of their salary for savings.
The advisers will offer wealth-creation consultancy to middle-income customers, and advise on wealth security to affluent customers, the executive said.
Before sitting down with a K-Expert consultant, customers will receive one or more of the 14 need-based KBank guidebooks that have been designed for the lifestyle and demands of each customer group.
Pakorn said customers using the K-Expert service would not have to pay for the advice, as the bank wants to provide an added-value service to retail customers and encourage them to make KBank their main port of call for all their financial business.
A rising level of transactions, either in the form the deposits or credit, will come when customers feel the difference of service that the bank offers, he added.
KBank hopes the new service will help bring in an additional 1 million retail customers. It currently has a retail customer base of about 10 million.
As of June 30, retail banking at KBank had assets under management of Bt1.91 trillion, 8 per cent higher than at the end of last year. Deposits grew 7 per cent in the period, and mutual-fund assets by 11 per cent.
Outstanding retail lending increased by 6 per cent to Bt270 billion during the first half, while retail fee income at Bt8.2 billion rose by 25 per cent year on year, driven by bancassurance and plastic-card business.
