Banks gain as SET investors shift money amid volatility

Noppawan Jermhansa, first senior vice president of Kasikornbank, said commercial banks have introduced special campaigns to serve customers who want to hold money out of concern for market uncertainty and matured deposits.

“We have found customers with sufficient money to put in special deposits but more than half do not have enough, so we launched a special deposit account to tap this segment,” she said.

KBank yesterday introduced the Super Taweesup Deposit to promote savings among depositors and offer a high-return deposit option. The product requires a fixed monthly deposit over 24 months, paying high returns. An interest rate of 3.5 per cent is offered for monthly deposits of Bt1,000-Bt9,999, while an interest rate of 3.8 per cent is offered for monthly deposits of Bt10,000-Bt25,000, the highest rate in the industry for this deposit type. 

However, customers are required to open a savings account at KBank so that the fixed monthly deposit can be automatically transferred from the savings account to the Super Taweesup account. 

During the previous 24-month deposit campaign, some customers forgot to deposit money on schedule.

“Around 48 per cent of depositors cannot deposit as scheduled so they decided to close the account. So, we have to ask customers to have a savings account to ensure they will get savings and a high return,” she said.

KBank is targeting 160,000 Super Taweesup accounts this year.

The bank, however, will not raise deposits faster than the loan-growth target. Its incremental deposits are running at Bt10 billion-Bt20 billion a month.

KBank targets deposit growth of 10-13 per cent this year. In the first six months, deposits expanded by 5 per cent to Bt1.46 trillion.