Bank of Ayudhya (BAY) set a slower non-interest income growth target, in a range of 3-5% this year from 7.2% last year, based on the lingering impacts of the digital transaction fee waiver and regulations on market conduct and debt collection.
Mr Goto says BAY is looking into possible digital revenue sources.
Scrapping the digital transaction fee hampered the bank's fee-based income, albeit by a smaller magnitude than seen by peers, said president and chief executive Noriaki Goto.
Regulatory constraint, particularly in debt collection and market conduct, is another force pressuring the bank's fee-based income, he said.
The country's fifth largest bank by assets delivered the highest growth in non-interest income over the past four years with 7.2% in 2018, underpinned largely by 10% and 12.7% upticks in investment banking and foreign exchange services, respectively.
"We're also exploring business opportunities to generate new sources of income, especially from digital-based revenue," said Mr Goto.
Digital lending is a key area to generate income on innovative platforms, he said.
The car loan segment under Krungsri Auto has showed positive signs via digital lending, and the bank plans to expand into other lending, said Mr Goto.
In 2019, BAY aims for lending growth of 6-8%.
The breakdown targets corporate loan growth of 5-6%, a small and medium-sized enterprise gain of 3-5%, retail loans improving 8-10%, auto loans 8-10%, and mortgage and unsecured loan growth both set at 7-8%.
The bank also expects to keep a lid on its non-performing loan ratio at 2.5% or lower, compared with 2.08% at the end of 2018.
Mr Goto said the bank is looking for a merger and acquisition opportunity, but that is not going to happen in the near future.
The bank is searching for business opportunities outside Thailand with a focus on the region. Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia, where BAY's majority shareholder Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group has a presence, could be possibilities.
The bank plans to spend around 7.5-8.5 billion baht this year for IT investment, rising from 5 billion last year.
This year's budget is earmarked for both back and front operations, covering whole business segments, including commercial and consumer banking business.
BAY projects doubling users of its mobile banking app, Krungsri Mobile App (KMA), to 5 million by the end of this year.
KMA users jumped significantly to 2.5 million last year from 1.2 million in 2017. Mobile banking transactions also doubled to 1 billion in 2018 from 500 million in 2017.
BAY shares closed yesterday on the SET at 38.50 baht, unchanged, in trade worth 2.69 million baht.