Korn Chatikavanij, a Democrat Party politician and former Finance Minister, has returned to the financial sector by teaming up with tech-savvy partners to launch an online refinancing service.
Mr Korn had previously left his successful investment banking business in 2004 to become a full time politician with the Democrat Party in 2005.
Refinn International Dot Com, a fintech startup, was set up last year with 1 million baht in registered capital. It began providing services on Aug 7, including total solutions for refinancing transactions, with its primary focus on mortgages.
Speaking at the official introduction of the company, Mr Korn said fintech is a new platform that allows retail customers to access refinancing packages, while Refinn lets them to manage their own refinancing packages via a beta version of its website.
"The good point of fintech is that it empowers consumers to manage their own loans," said Mr Korn. "Consequently, the service fee competition among banks and financial institutions will be intensifying, and that competition is definitely good for consumers," he added.
Mr Korn said that thanks to technological innovations, information that had previously been the purview of investors wealthy enough to hire experts to manage their portfolios was now available to retail customers through their website.
Since Aug 7, the company has provided total refinancing value of 1 billion baht. The average refinancing value was 2 million baht per deal.
The beta version of the website has aggregated more than 80 promotional schemes for refinancing packages from 15 banks, calculating the best deals based on customer need for a fee.
Customers can also compare and contrast the benefits of each programme before making a decision. The website also allows them to submit their refinancing applications to the banks they choose from the website.
"Customers will not only cut down on fees, they will cut the time they need to spend from days to 15 seconds," said Pongsatorn Dhanabordeephat, chief operating officer of the company.
"Refinancing will help mortgage borrowers cut interest costs and shorten their loan repayment periods by one-third (from 30 years to only 20 years)," he added.
Refinn will generate revenue from products' marketing fees, document processing fees, and advertising fees from businesses who want to communicate with customers through its website.
CEO and co-founder Nintita Loetrungsuphakun said that in its initial phase the company has raised seed capital from investors including Mr Korn, Peainkrai Asawapoka, a private wealth planner, and Akarat Nitibhon, a founder of Mushroom Television.
Ms Nintita said outstanding mortgages in the country totalled 2.1 trillion baht, with new property sales valued at 500 billion baht a year. The total refinancing value, by contrast, was only 60 billion baht a year.
She added that the refinancing market was still low compared with total mortgages because of complicated applications and new rates calculations.
"Our service will help make these transactions easier. Once people learn that is now very easy to seek better rates, refinancing will start growing rapidly," said Ms Nintita.
Next year Refinn targets 10 billion baht in refinancing activity via its website, with some 5,000 customers averaging 2 million baht per deal.
Ms Nintita said the company plans to expand its services to credit card loans, personal loans, and other related debts that can be refinanced.
The company also has plans to expand abroad.