CIMB Thai Bank is focusing more on people with monthly incomes of Bt20,000 and above for its personal loans in a bid to get its rate of non-performing loans (NPLs) below 2 per cent this year.
Adisorn Sermchaiwong, senior executive vice president, said people earning around Bt20,000 were regarded as a quality segment for personal loans.
The bank's current NPL rate for unsecured loans is 2.8 per cent.
One way to attract people in this income bracket is to offer lower interest rates, so the bank has soft-launched a programme to charge 9 per cent per annum for one-year unsecured loans to borrowers earning Bt20,000 a month. The instalments are monthly.
For people with monthly income of Bt30,000, the bank offers two choices. One is an interest rate of 15 per cent per annum for a three-year term, and the other is an interest rate of 18 per cent for a five-year term.
In general, the maximum interest rate on personal loans is 28 per cent.
At present about 70 per cent of new loans are to borrowers with incomes of Bt20,000, and the bank needs to maintain that ratio to ensure a gradual reduction of its NPLs, Adisorn said.
He said the bank yesterday introduced a digital customer engagement solution to increase convenience for personal-loan borrowers who have no time to come to the bank's branches.
CIMB Thai claims that it is the first bank in the country to use this technology to service personal-loan customers who earn Bt20,000 a month.
To DSE technology, the outbound staff will have a dongle at tablet, he said and added that a customer who request personal loan with CIMBT, is required ID card to insert at a dongle, which the DSE will verify a know your customer (KYC) and inform the loan approval result to the customers within 15 minutes after applying loan applications with the outbound staff. Customers using this technology can receive loan approval within 15 minutes. Once approved, they will receive their cash the next day. CIMB Thai hopes this quick loan-approval process will lead to new lending of Bt500 million this year through this channel.
The bank will promote this channel to workers in offices and department stores.
Adisorn said the bank targeted new personal loans of Bt8 billion this year, up from Bt6 billion in 2015. The personal-loan portfolio is expected to reach Bt12 billion, from Bt11 billion at the end of last year.
"We hope to grow in personal loans this year, while housing loans might not grow much because the economic situation is not encouraging people to buy homes," he said.
New housing loans at CIMB Thai this year are targeted at Bt14 billion, up from Bt13 billion. When combined with the Bt8-billion target for new personal loans, new retail loans this year are projected at Bt22 billion, against Bt18 billion last year.
Outstanding retail loans this year are targeted at Bt80 billion, up from Bt72 billion last year.