StanChart pushes on-line transactions
Standard Chartered Bank (Thai) is promoting online banking by offering attractive conditions to customers who prefer making transactions themselves, as it considers that this channel could help sustain its relationship with consumers as they adapt to the
Ramakrishnan Subramanian, senior executive vice president for consumer banking, said people looking for the convenience offered by digital technology were no longer staying with one main bank, while looking for various products at different banks that can response to their needs.
“We have tracked the behaviour of our customers in consumer banking for many years and found that they tend to hold more than one account or use financial products from many banks. Based on the bank’s data, customers in Thailand hold two products on average, lower than the four financial products of customers in Singapore. Standard Chartered Bank (Thai)’s customers currently hold 2.5-3.5 products. The bank aims for this to increase to 3.5 products by 2015,” he said.
The bank has divided its consumer-banking business into three segments: retail customers, wealth management and priority banking, and finally small and medium-sized enterprises.
To keep engaged with customers, the bank has changed its mindset from expanding the customer base to segmenting existing clients, he said.
Online banking is a channel that could strengthen the relationship between the financial house and its customers, so StanChart has offered rewards to these customers in the form of special deposit and lending interest rates.
Customers who apply for a credit card online will receive higher rewards than those who apply for one at traditional branches, he explained.
The reward programmes have helped boost the number of online-banking users by 28 per cent year on year while transactions via this channel have increased by 50 per cent. Online-banking customers account for 10 per cent of the 500,000 total, Subramanian said.
The bank believes its strategic focus on customer segmentation and online banking will help sustain its growth in Thailand. It projects double-digit growth in consumer banking annually in terms of both portfolio and revenue.
