Newly appointed president of the Government Savings Bank (GSB) Chatchai Payuhanaveechai aims to push the state-owned bank to be a leading lender for the low-income people of Asean.
The 102-year-old bank will continue providing support for government policies and expanding its microfinance business to low-income earners, especially in rural communities, he told reporters for the first time since taking over the post earlier this month.
Chatchai: Wants to modernise the brand
Prior to taking the helm at the GSB, Mr Chatchai was an executive vice-president of Kasikornbank. He beat three other candidates: GSB acting president and first senior executive vice-president Tachaphol Kanjanakul, GSB senior executive vice-president Pisit Serewiwattana and Krungthai Bank's senior executive vice-president Parinya Patanaphakdee.
The GSB's board picked Mr Chatchai in October to succeed Worawit Chailimpamontri, who resigned from the state-owned bank in March to take responsibility for its contentious decision to extend a 5-billion-baht loan to the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC).
The loan, which the BAAC was to use to help finance overdue payments to farmers under the rice pledging scheme, triggered a strong public outcry and a temporary deposit run of 110 billion baht at the GSB.
To achieve the bank's goal, Mr Chatchai plans to shift focus to a customer-centric bank, modernise the brand to attract Generation Y customers, develop new financial products and services such as mobile banking and electronic cards to match customers' lifestyles, develop human resources through training courses to beef up employee efficiency, and improve information technology systems.
The state-owned bank will also focus on management and supervision to create a buffer in preparation for any crisis or negative impact.
The bank plans to keep non-performing loans at an appropriate level, said Mr Chatchai, adding that bad loans are targeted to sit at 1.7% of total loans at the end of 2015.
The GSB aims for a net profit of 21 billion baht this year, well above its 19 billion target set for last year. However, the bank managed to post a net profit of 24.3 billion baht in 2014.
Mr Chatchai said the bank will strive to make 2015 net profit higher than last year.
He also wants 5% growth in the bank's assets this year from 2.37 trillion baht at the end of last year, a 6% rise in loans outstanding from 1.91 trillion last year, and a 6% increase in deposits to 2.06 trillion.
The bank is set to boost its fee and service income to 6 billion baht or 5% of its total revenue from 4 billion last year. Fee and service income represented just 3% of the GSB's total revenue in 2014.