KTC ready to serve joint GSB

Rathian Srimongkol, president and chief executive officer, said KTC was ready to prepare alternatives for co-branded cardholders once the GSB has a clear policy on launching its own card.

Tachaphol Kanjanakul, acting president and CEO of GSB, said recently that his bank planned to develop a credit card and might cancel co-branded cards.

Rathian said new cards and card spending are being sourced more by Krung Thai Bank, its parent, than by GSB. KTB’s capital boost will also help support KTC’s business in the future.

KTC-GSB credit cards make up only 100,000 of KTC’s 1.6-million-card base.

The business plan for the rest of this year focuses on increasing activities with dining partners to drive card spending and redemption of reward points.

KTC yesterday teamed up with McDonald’s to roll out a loyalty campaign called "Paid for by KTC Forever Rewards Points". Cardholders can exchange their points for popular items on McDonald’s menu.

KTC is installing credit-card machines at all 168 McDonald’s restaurants nationwide.

This promotion is expected to help increase usage by more than 100 million points a year.

KTC prefers marketing activities as its strategy even if it is a cost to the company, Rathian said.

It is attempting to reduce its cost-to-income ratio. Even though it showed its first quarterly profit of Bt86 million since facing losses in the fourth quarter of last year and first quarter of this year, the ratio in the second quarter was high, rising to 53 per cent from 46 per cent in the first quarter.

The high ratio was due to the huge compensation that KTC gave to outsourcing companies for cancelling their contracts.

Since the outsourcing companies have been paid off, profit in the third quarter should improve from the second quarter. The cost ratio will gradually decline to 40 per cent by year-end, Rathian said.