Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) aims to become a universal digital bank and upgrade its mobile banking platform to be No.1 in wealth management services.
The bank is developing its digital platform under an omni-channel service strategy.
SCB wants to offer a full range of financial services through both offline and online channels in response to customer demand, said chief executive Kris Chantanotoke during its "Digital Bank with Human Touch" briefing yesterday.
The bank has 17 million customers, of which around 14 million or 80% are users of its mobile banking platform SCB Easy. The app ranks among the country's top 10 apps and the top three for banking in terms of usage.
The total number of users of the bank's digital apps and related digital services is 25 million, he said.
Mr Kris said the bank aims to upgrade SCB Easy to be the industry leader for wealth management services by 2025 under its three-year business plan covering 2023-25.
He said leader would be defined by customer satisfaction and business transactions, which would be measured by ratio of sales, transactions, number of users and assets under management (AUM).
The bank set an IT and digital budget of 7-10 billion baht for the next three years to develop infrastructure to improve financial products and services on the digital banking platform.
SCB also wants to further strengthen its cybersecurity system.
The bank is the country's fourth-largest lender by total assets and the industry leader in wealth management with a total customer base of 400,000 and AUM of 1.6 trillion baht.
SCB expects to increase its client base to 600,000 and AUM to 2 trillion baht in three years, said Mr Kris.
The bank does not plan to apply for the central bank's upcoming virtual bank licence, focusing instead on developing its digital banking platform. SCB will also not offer unsecured loans, offering lending products via its holding company, SCB X, he said.
Even with the focus on wealth management services on the digital platform, traditional branches and staff are still needed.
The bank does not plan to add new branches to its current 766 outlets across the country, instead relocating or merging some physical branches in line with changing customer behaviour, said Mr Kris.
The SCB Easy app has many users and services, he said, and the bank hopes to increase transactions on the platform to contribute higher income.
Growing business on the digital banking platform will help SCB cut operating costs, said Mr Kris.
