Citibank Thailand is optimistic that consumer spending will gain traction, underpinned by the economic uptick driven by public spending.
State spending will have a multiplier effect on the economy in the long run and increase domestic consumption including credit card spending, said country head Darren Buckley.
The Comptroller General's Department recently said state agencies managed to draw down 58.4% of the 2.575-trillion-baht budget for expenditures and 36.2% of the 449-billion investment budget during October to April.
Spending via Citibank's credit cards has been pretty resilient against the sagging economy and swelling household debt because its cardholders are upper-middle income earners and higher, he said without elaborating on figures.
Thailand's household debt climbed to 10.4 trillion baht or 85.9% of GDP at the end of last year, with low-income earners the most vulnerable from the lacklustre economy and the sharp decline in farm product prices.
Central bank data on non-performing loans (NPLs) for credit card spending jumped almost 22% over the same period last year to 8.93 billion baht as of March 31, while personal NPLs increased some 27.4% to 15.5 billion baht.
The bank sees greater opportunity in international banking transactions including credit cards, money transfers and overseas investment for its wealth management clients, Mr Buckley said.
The bank has around 1 million retail accounts, including deposits, lending and wealth management business. Its clients earn 30,000 baht per month on average.
Citibank requires its wealth management customers to have a minimum of 3 million baht in assets under management.
In the meantime, the US-based bank introduced a new smart banking branch on Asok Road yesterday. A smart teller unit features quick, paperless deposits, withdrawals, fund transfers and payments with the swipe of a Citibank ATM card.
A smart queue management system has been adopted at the branch to allow customers to spend less time making transactions.
Clients can SMS the bank to reserve a queue number while they are on the way to the branch, making their wait time even shorter. The innovative system also enables SMSes to be sent to clients when their queue draws nearer, giving them the flexibility to carry out other activities while waiting for their turn.
With the new smart branch service, customers are expected to spend 15 minutes less for transactions on average, estimates Citibank.
The bank aims for double-digit growth in retail customers and banking transactions by next year, said country business manager N. Rajashekaran.
Aside from the Asok branch, the bank has another two branches at United Center on Silom Road and CentralWorld.