SCB goes electronic
Siam Commercial Bank has been continually expanding its electronic banking business with the aim of boosting fee income from its bill payment service to Bt400 million this year - an annual growth rate of 27 per cent.
Charamporn Jotikasthira, executive vice president for SCB's business cash management group, said the bank recorded two million bill payment transactions per month. The proportion of payment via electronic channels is about 10 per cent of the total, with the remaining 90 per cent of bills paid via the bank's branches. "Compared with other large banks, our bill payment transactions via electronic channels is the highest proportion in the industry. Payment through electronic channels of other banks is expected to be lower than 5 per cent," he said. Meanwhile, the bank has targeted to boost payments through electronic channels to 15 per cent by the end of the year and to 22 per cent in 2007, he said. This would reduce operating costs. A Bank of Thailand report has shown that bank counter operations cost about Bt20 each, while electronic banking costs Bt5-Bt10 a time. Charamporn added that SCB's electronic channels, including payment via Internet banking, ran about 500,000 transactions per month from its Internet customer base of 300,000. The bank's deposit accounts number about 7 million. SCB has 710 branches and 3,100 ATMs. Somruedi Banchongduang The Nation
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