KBank plans major push to strengthen digital platform

The bank yesterday unveiled its ambitious plan to strengthen its position in the digital era and to capitalise on the continued economic expansion, amid the new digital infrastructure and changing consumer behaviour.
KBank president Predee Daochai was optimistic that economic growth rate next year would be about 3.7 per cent, the same as estimated this year. “The Thai economy base next year would be larger than this year,” he explained.
Given the momentum of economic recovery, the bank expects loan growth rate of 5-7 per cent next year. However, non-interest income growth rate is expected to be flat. The bank aims to maintain a net interest margin(NIM) between 3.2-3.4 per cent and non-performing loans(NPLs) gross-to-total-loans at 3.3-3.4 per cent.
He said NPLs would be easier to manage due to the favourable economic situation. However, due to the lower transaction fee for Internet banking services, non-interest rate income would not grow.
He assured that expansion of mobile banking and innovative new products would contribute to next year’s revenue. He predicted high growth potential for mobile banking due to changing consumer behaviour.
The number of mobile banking accounts as a ratio of the total population was only 0.9 per cent in 2010; the ratio jumped to 34.8 per cent in 2016, which is an exponential growth, he said.
KBank president Pipit Aneaknithi said the bank plans to strengthen its digital platform, aiming to achieve “Customers’ Life Platform of Choice”, a comprehensive service that goes beyond banking, embedding trust and service.
The bank aims to increase users of K PLUS, mobile-banking application to 10.8 million next year, up from an estimated 8 million by 2017 year-end.
The number of merchants who use KBank mobile banking will increase to 1 million next year, up from 200,000 this year.
And small and medium-sized enterprises using mobile banking are expected to reach 500,000 next year, up from 420,000 this year.
The bank also plans to create an online market place app next year and aims to offer 50,000 products for shoppers to choose from, he said.
To achieve the goal, the bank plans to spend about Bt 4 billion to Bt5 billion a year on IT development starting next year.
One of the services will be machine lending, which will offer loans to clients, he said.
The bank will also expand its enterprise letter of guarantee service on Blockchain, which is currently being trialled in the central bank’s sandbox.
Meanwhile, Kattiya Indaravijaya, KBank president, said the bank forecast retail bank lending to grow 6-8 per cent next year.
Lending to SMEs is set to expand at 4-6 per cent with fee-income growth rate of 2-4 per cent and value of market share at 28.5 per cent. Corporate loan growth is expected to be 5-7 per cent. 
The bank also aims to be a regional settlement hub by expanding its exotic currency settlement initiative service that allows fund transfers between Asean+3 countries. So far fund transfers of over Bt16 billion have taken place since the service started in the first quarter of this year, she added.