United Overseas Bank (Thai) expects double-digit mortgage growth this year while maintaining outstanding non-secured loan levels.
The bank's housing loans are likely to grow by 10-15% in 2015 as the country's economic recovery gains pace, said Yuttachai Teyarachakul, UOB Thai's executive director for personal financial services.
"The bank's property loans performed well last year, soaring more than 15% and above the industry's growth of 8-10%," he said.
"We're quite concerned about lending risk. Our policy is to grow equally or above the industry rate but keep non-performing loans lower than the industry's."
UOB Thai has focused on home loans, awarding approvals at a rate of roughly 70%.
For the credit-card business, the plan is to expand the number of cards rather than the loans outstanding.
At the end of last year, UOB Thai's retail loans outstanding reached 130 billion baht, of which 70% was secured lending and the rest non-secured.
According to the Bank of Thailand's website, UOB Thai's total credit stood at 258 billion baht, while deposits totalled 269 billion.
Fee-based products such as bancassurance are expected to grow by at least 20% in 2015, on a par with last year's level and the industry's.
UOB Thai's bancassurance strategy has shifted to medium- and long-term insurance products with a coverage period of more than 15 years to a lifetime, as they have greater growth potential than short-term products.
The bank yesterday launched the UOB Love & Care campaign with partners Prudential Life Assurance, AXA Insurance, Bupa Health Insurance, MSIG Insurance and Thaivivat Insurance to provide financial support for people with cancer who cannot afford their treatment. UOB and its partners will donate 1% of total insurance premiums from new policies to the Siriraj Foundation until the end of next month.