SIAM Commercial Bank has outlined its short- and long-term business plans, which are focused on implementing buffers to tackle economic uncertainty and building a healthy bank via a huge investment in technology.
Arthid Nanthawithaya, chief executive officer of the bank and deputy chairman of its executive committee, yesterday said that unknown external factors were a major worry, and the bank acknowledged that it should have own buffers against such risk, including staying close to its clients to ensure that the buffers were sufficient.
The bank will increase its focus on risk management to make sure that its asset quality does not deteriorate, as it has experienced in the past, he stressed.
Last year, SCB had substantially higher provision expenses, including full provision for Sahaviriya Steel Industries and the write-down of a loan to the steel company for its operations in the United Kingdom.
This resulted in its full-year profit falling to Bt47.2 billion, from Bt53 billion the year before, he said.
SCB must increase its capability from its existing business as well as forming a solid 'new foundation', with the latter being a long-term plan, said Arthid.
With some sectors posing a higher risk exposure than others, the bank will increase its capability in three customer segments: the number of small SMEs in its customer base; the number of mid-sized corporates; and wealthy customers' assets under management.
As regards the new foundation, SCB will press ahead with digitisation by setting aside 1 per cent-1.5 per cent of annual net profit to invest in technology, he said.
The bank recently submitted an application to the Bank of Thailand to establish a wholly owned subsidiary responsible for digital technology.
The new company will also put together a venture-capital fund with an initial budget of US$50 million (Bt1.8 billion) to invest in start-up and FinTech (financial technology) businesses, he explained.
"Venture capital will help SCB increase its understanding in technology, which is a field [of investment] that the bank has never touched before. We might have a partnership in setting up the venture-capital funding," he said
Arthid will be chairman of the new company and Thana Thienachariya, a former executive of Total Access Communication (DTAC), will head up the business.
SCB president Yol Phokasub said the bank's cost-to-income ratio stood at 37 per cent, which could rise to 40 per cent via new investment - a level that would, however, still be below the average of 44 per cent for the country's other four major banks.
This means SCB has plenty of room for significant investment in technology, he said, adding that it would set aside around Bt1 billion a year to support the new company.
He said that apart from digital technology, SCB's banking business under the "SCB Next 2020" vision must change from a focus on lending to clients in product manufacturing and distribution to the enablement of a customer ecosystem, under which it would have to deliver experience to customers and provide them with security solutions and big-data analytics.
Yol added that even though the economic slowdown continued to affected its profitability, the long-term future was for a healthy bank, and SCB was building for the future by transforming via what he called 'new banking DNA