TMB Bank is in no rush to enter the car-loan fray since the automobile market has been distorted by the government's tax rebate scheme for first-time car buyers, says chief executive Boontuck Wungcharoen.
Moreover, the automobile-leasing business is not TMB's priority, and it wants to take a few years to monitor the market and study the consumer-loan product before making any decision.
Among the country's seven largest lenders, TMB and Bangkok Bank are the only two banks that do not offer car-leasing services. TMB will conduct a feasibility study on the automobile-loan business over the next few years.
Local auto-loan lenders are struggling with declining new-car sales and rising used-car non-performing loans in the aftermath of the government's first-time car buyer scheme, which lapsed at the end of last year.
Though the scheme has provided a temporary boost to the economy, it has also stolen future consumption.
"Our priority is to focus on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The better longer-term yields compared with average five-year car loans will contribute to the bank's revenue in the long run," said Mr Boontuck. "Local SMEs still have growth potential."
For the first half of this year, SME loans showed the strongest growth rate among other businesses, up by 35.2% year-on-year and 11.9% from the end of 2012.
Mr Boontuck said TMB plans to increase the portion of SME loans to half of all loans in the coming years from 35% now and retail banking to 20% from 18% while lowering the corporate loan ratio to 30% from 47%.
However, it has retained its focus on existing consumer finance products including mortgages, credit cards and personal loans. Cross-selling products, to be driven by its depositors, is a key business to boost growth in the retail banking business.
For deposits, TMB continues to tap new clients with innovative products and services under the TMB No Fee group _ TMB No Fee accounts, TMB One Bank One Account and TMB Free Flow Daily Account _ in order to promote transactional banking in all customer segments.
As of June 30, retail banking represented the largest portion at 68.4% of deposits outstanding at 478 billion baht.
Shares of TMB closed Friday on the Stock Exchange of Thailand at 2.66 baht, up four satang, in trade worth 291 million baht.