Kbank aims for 30% more digital users
Kasikornbank, already the market leader in the digital segment, targets 30-per-cent growth in the number of |digital-banking customers next year in line with booming mobile-device sales and the establish-|ment of third-generation cellular service.
Pakorn Partanapat, an executive vice president of KBank, said yesterday that it had studied the behaviour and needs of customers in terms of digital banking.
Transactions through mobile devices will increase over the |next three years, he said. They |are already higher than trans-actions through personal com-|puters – a sign that mobile |phones, especially smart phones, are becoming a key instrument |for this kind of banking.
Of the 8 million digital-banking users nationwide, 4.6 million are KBank customers. The bank expects its digital-banking accounts to rise to 6.5 million next year.
The bank aims to develop features to serve the rising number of smart-phone users and the upcoming 3G service after succeeding with K-merchant for e-commerce and K-cyber for investors.
The bank has found that digital banking can reinforce transactions through traditional channels.
It is not focusing on fee income from digital banking because its goal is to make customers feel comfortable with this kind of service.
“Our fee income [from digital banking] was only Bt1 billion |compared with Bt17 billion of |total fee income from retail banking. Even though the bank expects more users next year, fee income from digital banking will increase only slightly to Bt1.4 billion,” he said.
The bank expects that its branches in the future will play the role of financial planner, while digital banking will be for basic transactions.
