The state-owned Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC) wants to more than double its active mobile app users to 600,000 by the end of this year, its chief says.
Since the A-mobile app was rolled out in January, 400,000 customers have downloaded the app and 260,000 of them are active, said president Apirom Sukprasert.
Apart from transactional banking services, the bank's mobile app now contains agricultural-related knowledge, weather information and farm product prices, and it plans to improve content by providing knowledge about farming in each area, he said.
The new financial services are aimed at complementing the lifestyles of BAAC's younger customers and smart farmers who prefer making transactions on mobile phones rather than going to traditional bank branches.
"Transactions through the A-mobile app and QR code payment are 3-4 times higher than expected, so we need to improve our back-office system. There are millions of transactions per month," said Mr Apirom.
The farm bank has 4 million active borrowing accounts and 30 million deposit accounts.
It joined its peers in waiving fees for digital transactions. Effective from April 9, fees for interbank, cross-clearing zones and PromptPay-based fund transfers were scrapped.
Despite rising digital banking transactions, BAAC has no plan to shut any branches this financial year, ending March 31, 2019. The number of its branches fell to 1,273 at the end of March 2018 from 1,275 a year earlier.
"We won't close any branches, but we need to raise our efficiency. We must build relationships with our customers and branch employees must become business advisers for our customers," he said.
"Our staff must understand customer business for each value chain and area. We must encourage customers to complete routine banking transactions through automation and digital systems to allow our branch staff to have time to visit with customers."
When banking transactions through automation and digital platforms increase to a certain level, banks will use some branches as marketplaces for customers' products to widen their distribution channels, said Mr Apirom.
BAAC has four branches -- in Bangkok, Chon Buri, Ayutthaya, and Chiang Mai -- where customers can offer products for sale.
The bank plans to increase its banking agents to 1,200 this year from 900.
The Bank of Thailand's banking agent rules allow related institutions to appoint agents to offer financial services such as money deposits, transfers, withdrawals and payment. Loan distribution is not permitted through banking agents.
Amended regulations allow banking agents to provide cash withdrawals of up to 5,000 baht per transaction and 20,000 baht per day per customer. The agents are meant to serve the unbanked population.