Bank CEOs familiarised with TBA's five-year plan
The Thai Bankers' Association yesterday held a workshop with chief executives of commercial banks on the TBA's five-year plan (2015-2019), focusing on digital banking and payment systems.
The five-year plan covers five issues: the role of banks in instituting digital banking; financial institutions’ support for the economy through helping all customer segments access loans; financial literacy; banks’ preparation for the Asean Economic Community; and legislation to support the above issues.
TBA chairman Boontuck Wungcharoen said the association this year would put most of its focus on three issues. The first is digital banking, by improving the electronic payment system to accommodate people’s financial transactions, including the Internet, debit/credit cards and mobile-phone payments.
The shift towards electronic payments is aimed at reducing the economic cost of cash management to around Bt90 billion per year, representing 0.8 per cent of gross domestic product.
The TBA has set up a specialised office to drive the payment-system plan.
By 2019, electronic payments are targeted to account for 70 per cent of total payments, up from only 30 per cent currently, Boontuck said.
The TBA believes that it should speed up the international payment system to increase the opportunity of doing business in Asean. Linking Thailand’s payment system with those of its neighbours would also increase the competitiveness of Thai small and medium-sized enterprises branching out into Asean markets.
The second focus is a code of conduct, for which the TBA will set up a board to standardise the governance of the banking industry. All bank employees will be trained to follow the code of conduct.
Third is financial literacy. Banks will use their network of 7,000 branches and 50,000 employees to help educate people of all ages on how to save and how to manage credit.
