Accessibility to ME by TMB self-service to be widened next year

At present, a customer who wants to open a self-service account at ME by TMB has to verify that he or she has a deposit account at a TMB Bank branch.

After that they can conduct transactions through the TMB call centre and Internet banking.

Rachada Sermsillapakul, director of marketing and sales at ME by TMB, said that to maintain annual growth of 20 per cent, the service must have convenient channels to attract customers. Online and mobile banking should be available to those who don’t already have TMB deposit accounts.

She said this was the first year that ME by TMB had expanded into provincial markets through "Money Expo" fairs, after which it found that customers upmarket had deposited a lot of money into it.

Most customers in the provinces came to know about ME by TMB through Money Expos, but some learned of it from the bank’s promotions.

Customers outside Bangkok account for 20 per cent of the deposits into ME by TMB, and Rachada said the bank planned to increase the upcountry customer base in the future.

The deposit base at ME by TMB represents billions of baht, she said.

According to TMB’s report of its nine-month results to the Stock Exchange of Thailand, deposits through

ME by TMB and non-fixed deposits were major contributors to TMB Bank’s deposits, at a combined 35.1 per cent of the total deposit base of Bt611 billion.

Since early this year, the bank has toned down its campaigns in line with the economic circumstances. However, ME by TMB in the first nine months achieved its growth target of 20 per cent thanks to its attractive interest rate.

"The profile of its customers is unchanged from previous years, but what we found is that around 80 per cent those who made deposits early this year have not made withdrawals," she said.

ME by TMB has launched a campaign for this quarter to urge younger consumers to put their money into a special account that offers higher returns than a normal savings account.