Chatchai Payuhanaveechai once saw his career in the banking industry as a path to follow in his parent's footsteps and become a retail merchant, but he's not only remained a banker for more than three decades -- he also managed to climb to the top post at state-owned Government Savings Bank (GSB).
Mr Chatchai worked at Kasikornbank for decades before applying for the top job at Government Savings Bank.
Mr Chatchai, 58, started working at Kasikornbank (KBank) 31 years ago after graduating from the Faculty of Commerce and Accountancy and Thammasat University.
"I never dreamed it would go this far," he says. "I'd planned to work in banking for only three years to build connections with bankers, which would be helpful when I borrowed money to do my own business.
"But when I worked at [KBank], it was joyful and my career always advanced. I'd get promoted every year and some colleagues at the bank told me that I would retire as a director. I really did make it, but when I was only 38."
He says his working principle is that he will earn a similar reward to others if his workload is on a par with theirs, but he, in fact, works harder and thus deserves a bigger reward.
Besides cycling, Mr Chatchai names 'working' as his main hobby.
"I work hard in return for being a specialist in particular areas," Mr Chatchai says. "For example, I'm a guru in real estate and an icon of KBank. I have deep insight into the market because I'd worked in the property-related loan unit and I've been familiar with the real estate associations for a long time."
Because his parents were in retail, he had to help them from a young age, remembering exact figures -- another skill that helped him advance rapidly in his career.
"I was always frustrated that my friends whose parents were state officials were not required to help their parents work during weekends, like I was," he says.
The 1997 financial crisis was a critical period for Mr Chatchai: it taught him that crisis moments always create numerous opportunities.
He recalls using his expertise in real estate to make a handsome profit by acquiring land and condominiums in fire sales as the financial malaise set in.
"My condominium unit located in Sukhumvit Soi 23 with a space of 200 square metres is now priced at 300,000 baht per square metre," he says. "But I bought it at a mere 30,000 per square metre during the crisis. I bought four or five more units to sell, and my income from such sales exceeded my salary at the time."
Mr Chatchai's last position at KBank before applying for the top job at GSB in late 2014 was executive vice-president.
He notes that the application process at GSB opened during a period relatively free of politics (courtesy of the military regime). He had come to realise that climbing the corporate ladder to the top level of a commercial bank is quite difficult.
"I'd applied for the job at GSB because I wanted to help the country," Mr Chatchai says. "Some state-owned banks had fallen into trouble at that time, and GSB, the largest specialised financial institution, needed someone to steer the bank through the tough period.
Photo in courtesy of GSB
Building a reputation for himself and his family was another reason behind the career move, he says.
Vying for the GSB helm were four strong candidates, insiders and outsiders. Mr Chatchai prevailed and was appointed the 16th president of GSB, whose assets trail only those of the four largest commercial banks.
"Khun Banthoon [Lamsam, KBank's chief executive] told me that I could leave the bank to make my dream come true, but I could come back if I failed," Mr Chatchai says. "He is a good guy. He wanted me to help steer the state-owned bank, like Prasarn Trairatvorakul, who resigned from KBank to be the central bank governor, and Rapee Sucharitakul, who quit [as executive chairman of Kasikorn Asset Management] to be secretary-general of the Securities and Exchange Commission. He is delighted to see the bank's employees helping the public sector."
Since taking charge at GSB, Mr Chatchai has turned around the century-old bank's image as an institution dedicated to state officials by reaching out to people from all walks of life.
The bank has also adopting innovative technologies like mobile banking, cardless withdrawal for ATMs and QR code payment.
GSB is now among the top local banks in terms of deposits and lending, with 2.26 trillion and 2.01 trillion baht respectively at the end of 2017. The bank's assets amounted to 2.62 trillion baht, and could be even bigger if taking into account accumulated income contributions worth more than 200 billion baht to the government's coffers.
Concerning the commercial banks' trend of branch closures after the rise of digital banking, Mr Chatchai says GSB has no such plans, as it is a specialised financial institution with a duty to serve people. The bank's branches are shifting focus to lending and issuance of credit and debit cards, rather than transactional banking services that can be performed using mobile apps and ATMs.
GSB now has 1,058 branches across the country, of which 162 are in Bangkok and the rest in the provinces.
Mr Chatchai says 99% of the work of loss-making branches involves transactional banking services, so the branch model will be transformed from service to sales.
"They [commercial banks] shutter their branches while I'll stay open, but my bank's branches must have low costs and generate income," he says. "We cannot close branches, as we're a state-owned bank that takes responsibility for serving people. If branch closures only served the purpose of trimming costs, my bank would have to shut branches in the three southern border provinces, as they are dangerous and cannot make much profit. GSB helps people in every district in Thailand to access services by having branches in eight districts that have never had a bank branch before, and seven of them are in red zones."
GSB staff have closer relations with and a better understanding of grassroots people than commercial banks, Mr Chatcha insists. Branch employees know which retail merchants in the area are prosperous, and they can collect when borrowers fail to service debt and persuade defaulters to restructure debt. For this reason, GSB has a low level of non-performing loans (NPLs).
Unlike GSB, commercial banks centralise loan scrutiny at headquarters and use a credit-scoring system in the loan approval process. Their employees don't know the borrowers personally, so debt restructuring activity is quite low.
"GSB has used both credit-scoring and employee discretion in the loan scrutiny process, but our system requires higher effort in analysing each borrower," Mr Chatchai says. "Our cost then is higher and profit is smaller. The bank charges grassroots borrowers at 10% a year, but commercial banks impose 28%. GSB can bear 2-3% soured loans, while commercial banks can accept a bad-loan ratio of as much as 5%.
"I tell my friends a joke that I always launched products at luxury hotels when I worked at KBank, but since I've been working at GSB, product launches are at wet markets and we sometimes take deposits of 500 baht from customers. All staff, starting from those at the lowest level to CEO, must work hard because there are a lot of missions."
Mr Chatchai dubs himself a workaholic, attending 8-10 meetings a day. Working is his hobby.
"Working makes me happy, I don't feel tired or stressful when working," he says. "Like playing sports, when we have fun, we don't feel tired."
Banks, GSB included, can't keep doing business in the traditional ways, he says, as income and fees are diminishing because of disruptive threats. New digital businesses will be key to long-term sustainability.
Photo in courtesy of GSB
An employee helps a client at one of GSB's 1,058 branches.