News feed
Play
Stay away from my staff!
As the leading lender to small and medium-sized enterprises, Kasikornbank has no fear that rivals might knock it out of the top spot in this market.
It is clear that Siam Commercial Bank and TMB Bank are working harder to catch up.
Patchara Samalapa, executive vice president of KBank and head of its SME division, acknowledged that other banks could expand loan growth by offering better terms to win more clients.
“We’re not worried about the ranking. We can be the second or third in the market,” he said.
What he does fear is that other banks are trying to improve their SME-lending performance through the expertise of KBank’s staff. Yes, they are stalking KBank staff, to grow their own SME-lending teams.
“Stop approaching them. We’re not in the game to accelerate loan growth,” he said.
To hold down the level of non-performing loans, in the past two years, KBank has let some high-risk SME clients refinance with other banks. While focusing on that, the bank neglected to deploy tactics that could prevent headhunting by competitors.
Unfreeze the prices!
Price freezes have done no good to anybody. That was the message expressed by Thai feed-meal producers when they met with Commerce Ministry officials on Friday.
Boontham Aramsiriwat, deputy secretary-general of the Thai Feed Mill Association, said the industry expected slow growth this year due to lower production of livestock, mainly shrimp and chicken. Also, he claimed that shares of feed-meal firms listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand were showing poor performance because of the government’s policy of freezing product prices despite higher costs of raw materials.
This resulted in lower-than-expected profits, he said.
It is interesting to consider how the abolition of price freezes would help raise the companies’ share prices, at a time when the SET Index is in decline.
