SCB aims to be ‘most admired bank’

He added that SCB aimed to achieve the goal within three years.
To do so, it will need to become an agile organisation and make a major investment in technology, correcting what Arthid sees as SCB’s past weaknesses in human resources, processes and the use of technology.
The expenditure will mostly be on big data, data analytics, human resources, mobile banking and technologies to help improve the competitiveness of business clients, all of which are areas where SCB has been underperforming in his view.
 The bank this year has increased its investment in technology to 15 per cent of annual profit from 6-7 per cent last year.
“We have to make our bank an agile organisation, so our investment in technology must speed up,” he said.
Arthid believes closer communication between the bank’s top executives and the staff is an important foundation, and team spirit will help the bank deal with threats from unknown areas, including financial technology.
“The only advantage banks have is that they have been protected by the regulator. However, we are seeing rising threats to the banking industry from new rivals that are outside the industry and outside the [reach of the] regulator. Hence we decided to review our direction to ensure that our bank is able to grow sustainably,” he said.
Changing trends among customers, technology and regulations are reshaping many businesses, with the result that the healthy fee incomes the banks used to enjoy are dwindling. Therefore, SCB will not longer focus on trying to be the bank with the highest profit or the highest market capitalisation or the highest number of branches, but instead the most admired bank, he said.
He said that to become more agile, the bank was ready to invest in technology to equip its employees. Moreover, it will adjust the decision-making processes of the 21 high-ranking executives who oversee six customer segments: mass clients, wealthy clients, small businesses, medium-size enterprises, corporates and conglomerates.
SCB must be the bank that all stakeholders admire, Arthid said.
He said SCB acknowledged that fee income from retail business would dry up once Thailand becomes a cashless country, but at the same time, the banks will be able to save around Bt80 billion a year in costs.
During the transitional period, income will be from corporate and wealth management, and SCB aims to increase its share of corporate clients to 25-30 per cent from 10 per cent currently.
Out of the 10,000 corporate entities in Thailand, SCB has only 1,000 clients, behind top-tier banks such as Bangkok Bank and Kasikornbank. SCB aims to triple the number of corporate customers within a few years.
Arthid also noted that in a globalised market, wealth management is a top income generator for banks. SCB is finding global partners in wealth management to strengthen itself in this area.
Because of rapid technological change, mobile banking will need to serve the needs of every customer segment on a single platform, so both mobile and Internet banking at SCB will be revamped. The new platform will be introduced in the first quarter of next year.
More than 100 SCB branches will be closed next year, after around 10 branches are shut this year. Physical branches will be closed once data analytics show that SBC’s mobile and Internet banking can serve the customers in those areas, he said.