Kasikornbank (KBank), the country's largest mobile banking service provider, plans to roll out money transfer, payment and deposit services on the Line platform in the first quarter 2020, with digital lending scheduled for the second half of the year.
KBank and Line Thailand formed a joint venture, Kasikorn-Line (K-Line), offering money transfers, payments and deposits via the super app, said Wirawat Panthawangkun, senior executive vice-president of KBank.
After gathering sufficient data to analyse customer behaviour, the service will expand to digital loans, set to launch in the middle of next year.
The bank aims to acquire 1 million new customers from 40 million Line users in the first year of operations, he said.
With more than half of KBank's 14 million depositors also users of the Line app, the new channel is expected to allow the bank’s customers more convenient access to financial services.
"The new channel could lead to lower transactions on our mobile banking app, K-Plus, because of overlapping users, but that won't matter as we can meet their demand," he said.
Moreover, Mr Wirawat said KBank has developed digital loan services on Grab platform, the bank’s other super app partner.
Grab's taxi and motorcycle taxi drivers the bank's initial customers for digital lending services before expanding to passengers and merchant partners in the next phase.
Under the collaboration with Grab, KBank also rolled out Grab wallet in June, with 100,000 users.
Given the positive growth, the bank expected Grab wallet's users will reach 300,000 by the end of the year, he said.
KBank aims for digital lending through the Grab platform to reach 100 million baht by year-end after lending more than 50 million since the beginning of the year.