KBank targets more digital banking to bolster fee income

Overall, only 20 per cent of Thais use digital banking, compared with almost 100 per cent in some developed countries. Pakorn Partanapart, senior executive vice president of KBank, said yesterday that there was a lot of room for growth in this area, with mobile devices becoming crucial tools for transactional banking.

Amid high household debt and the economic slowdown, the bank might lower its growth forecast for retail lending from the previous target of 6-9 per cent, but it has maintained its forecast for fee-income growth at 20-23 per cent, he said.

Transactional banking contributes about 30 per cent of KBank’s retail-banking fee income. In the first three months, the digital-banking business showed outstanding performance with 52-per-cent growth in transaction volumes, translating into an average monthly cash flow of Bt280 billion.

Pakorn said that according to management-consulting firm McKinsey, the number of digital-banking customers across Asia would surge to 1.7 billion by 2020 from 670 million last year. Therefore, KBank will focus more on proactive strategies to expand its customer base, embracing a comprehensive digital-banking service and demonstrating industry leadership in this area. 

This year, KBank targets adding 4 million digital users to the current complement of 6 million.

“Digital banking transactions are being enhanced to integrate with the digital economic era, as well as supporting the nature of changing consumer behaviour,” Pakorn said. 

He said the bank was focusing on three key elements, the “three C’s” – Connect, Create and Capture.

“Connect” means creating an excellent service experience through integrated information in all service channels, namely branches, automated teller machines and smartphones.

“Create” means enhancing innovations that facilitate rapid service responses for customers along with security measures to prevent hacking. “Capture” means utilising social media and processes for analysing consumer behaviour and accessing target customers. 

Looking ahead, Pakorn said, the bank will develop a rapid and convenient digital-banking service that matches changing customer lifestyles and technologies. High information security is in place to ensure customer confidence. It is these strategies that will maintain KBank’s reputation as the industry leader in the digital banking business, with access to all customer segments, anywhere at any time, he said.