FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
nationthailand

New head for financial services in Asia Pacific

New head for financial services in Asia Pacific

BMW Group has appointed Ritu Chandy as regional chief executive officer of financial services for its Asia Pacific operations.

Chandy is based in Singapore and replaces Serge Naudin, who has been relocated to China as president, BMW Group financial services, China. Chandy is responsible for the financial services business across seven countries in the Asia Pacific region – Australia, New Zealand, India, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea and Thailand – as well as the strategic partnerships in Indonesia, Singapore and Vietnam.

New head for financial services in Asia Pacific
Chandy, who holds an Executive MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, has been working with the BMW Group since 2001. Prior to her new appointment, Chandy served as chief financial officer and vice president of Finance, BMW Group, in North America from 2014 to 2018 where she was responsible for the financial oversight and development of all financial servicescompanies of the Americas region.

BELT AND ROAD

 BBL, HKTDC ink MoU on partnership agreement 
Bangkok Bank (BBL) and the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) have recently signed a memorandum of understanding for the “Belt and Road Strategic Partnership Agreement”, aiming to enhance the relationship and support collaboration between the bank and the HKTDC as strategic partners to increase trade and investment under the Belt and Road Initiative. 
The MOU was signed at the 3rd Belt and Road Summit in Hong Kong, the Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China.

DELTA ELECTRONICS
Board nods to tender offer for outstanding shares in Thai unit 

Delta Electronics Inc announced yesterday its board of directors has approved a conditional voluntary tender offer through its subsidiary Delta Electronics International (Singapore) Pte Ltd (DEISG) to acquire the Thailand-listed outstanding shares of Delta Electronics (Thailand) Public Company Limited (DET) to strengthen its global manufacturing reach and to further enhance sales support in Southeast Asia and its related areas. 
Delta Electronics’ Chairman Yancey Hai said: “DET possesses excellent manufacturing competencies that shall enhance our capability to deal with international trade uncertainties. Moreover, the transaction allows Delta to sharpen its sales platforms to better serve customers in the region.”
Delta Electronics currently holds a 20.93 per cent ownership in DET and will offer, through its subsidiary DEISG, a cash payment of Bt71.0 for each outstanding share. After closing, Delta Electronics may acquire up to all the remaining 986,269,024 shares or a 79.07 per cent stake (the total transaction amount is estimated as high as US$2.14 billion approximately). The acquisition transaction is expected to commence after approval by the respective authorities in designated countries is obtained.
DET, listed in the Stock Exchange of Thailand since 1995, is an electronics manufacturing company in Thailand focused on the production of switching power supplies, power systems, automotive electronics and related products. 
The company has sales offices in Southeast Asia, India, Australia and Europe as well as manufacturing facilities in Thailand, India and Slovakia.

KBank goes for new funds transfer service 
KASIKORNBANK (KBank) plans to start forward global funds transfer service for retail customers.
The first step has been made via cooperation with the Development Bank of Singapore (DBS) to receive real-time transfer from Singapore or via KBank to recipient accounts in 21 other banks in Thailand. 
KBank is also preparing to introduce outward transfer service on K PLUS application for recipients in more than 40 countries worldwide this coming October and expects total transfer value both inward and outward of approximately Bt500 billion a year and reaching a triple amount by 2020. KBank President Patchara Samalapa, said the bank Bank focused on adoption of digital technologies for connecting the systems of global funds transfer and cross-border transactions.
Joining hands with DBS Bank, KBank is going to launch a real-time inward funds transfer from Singapore in August. 
Retail funds transfer from Singapore to Thailand is worth not less than Bt30 billion annually. With the new service, the transfer will be automatically verified before crediting into a KBank account on a real-time basis. It currently takes more than one day to process international funds transfer (depending on systems and countries). Customers may choose to credit it into an account in 21 other Thai banks. 
The new service unprecedentedly enables the sender to check the account name and status of the recipient before making funds transfer, allowing them to be aware of an exact amount of funds transfer fee as well as transaction status whereas the recipient will receive the full transfer amount. 
The system can accommodate up to Bt1.5 million in funds transfer at a time per day. KBank expects that there will be around 3,000 transfer transactions each month. The service will be shortly rolled out in other AEC countries for broader coverage. Currently, the number of retail inward remittance in Thailand totals approximately 3.8 million transactions/year, accounting for about Bt1.5 trillion. Of those, 620,000 transactions are made via KBank, valued at Bt250 billion/year, representing 16 per cent of the market share. The number of non-bank inward remittance in Thailand totals around 200,000 transactions/year, valued at over Bt10 billion/year. KBank expects total transfer value both inward and outward of approximately Bt500 billion a year and reaching a triple amount by 2020.
Patchara added that KBank is set to unveil a new feature for outward mobile remittance service via K PLUS in October, which will, for the first time, enable KBank customers in Thailand to expedite the funds transfer transactions by themselves to recipients in more than 40 countries across the globe, including the US, the UK, Singapore, Hong Kong, India, Australia and the EU. 
 

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