Kampol Adsavakulchai, executive vice president of SCB Asset Manage-ment's mutual-fund group, said SCBFF was growing rapidly because investors were well aware of the fund's higher returns than those of bank deposits.

He insisted that Siam Commercial Bank had no policy to drain excess liquidity by diverting savings to its mutual-fund unit.

Rumours had it that because the bank was stuck with Thaksin's money it had to reduce deposits to squeeze out expenses as loan growth had missed its target.

The bank expects all of the firms under its umbrella to contribute 20-per-cent growth this year. However, in the first five months its loans expanded only 2.15 per cent, from Bt644.11 billion to Bt662.22 billion. Still, it was the best performer among the country's top six banks, which account for some 80 per cent of the industry's loan portfolio.

SCBFF has doubled in size from Bt77 billion early this year to Bt158 billion, in the process dethroning Kasikorn Asset Management as the king of mutual funds.

Each month SCBFF could attract Bt10 billion-Bt20 billion, pumping up SCB Asset Management's total assets under management from Bt170.67 billion to Bt278.77 billion currently.

Since the middle of this month, when the Assets Examination Committee ordered a freeze on Thaksin's Bt58 billion, concerns have been raised that SCB was letting its savings-account customers desert to its mutual-fund unit.

To invest money in mutual funds or park the money in the bank's products is the customer's choice, he said, adding that the bank's savings accounts and the SCBFF grew together.

"Savings balances at the bank didn't drop; neither did the SCBFF."

Piyarat Setthasiriphaiboon

The Nation