SCB to pay for any delay to salaries

If they cannot withdraw cash after 6am on the pay date, the bank will pay Bt100 per account in compensation.

Charamporn Jotikasathira, head of SCB's Business Cash Management Group, said the bank provided about 10,000 companies with payroll service, covering more than 1.4 million employees. If employees are unable to withdraw cash after 6am on pay day, they can inform the SCB Call Centre or any branch of the bank to claim the Bt100, which will be transferred to the customer's account on the next working day.

"This year we are focusing on quality of service and we would like to assure customers about our efficiency and modern services. Therefore the bank launched the SCB Guaranteed Payroll programme - the first in Asia.

This sets a new pace for raising the service standards of Thai

commercial banks," Charamporn said.

A Bt10 fee per account for payroll service will be charged to the companies.

The bank's Business Cash Management operations have grown 40 per cent from last year in terms of transactions. The bank aims for a 20-per-cent growth rate in the number of employees who use its payroll service, with fee income reaching Bt300 million by year-end.

SCB will focus on personal loans in the second half of the year via customer segmentation and quicker approval time - less than three days.

Roongruang Sukkirdkijpiboon, executive vice president of the Retail Lending Products Division, said the bank currently charged the same interest rate for every customer but in the second half it will revise its personal loan strategy by segmenting the customer base.

Customers who receive a monthly salary of Bt100,000 will be charged lower than 28-per-cent interest, while the customers with Bt10,000 will be charged 28 per cent. The minimum required income for a personal loan is still Bt10,000 per month.

"The bank will form direct sales teams to sell personal loan products to people who have not been the bank's customers before. We aim that the personal loan portion will be 10 per cent of total outstanding loans. Meanwhile, the approval period will be shortened to not more than three days from three to five days now," said Rungruang.

SCB needs the revised strategy to increase its outstanding personal loans to Bt11 billion from Bt6 billion last year.

However, in the current economic situation, the bank needs to be more careful in lending and targets that its non-performing loans (NPLs) will not be higher than 3 per cent.

They currently stand at 2.1 per cent. With a default rate at 5 per cent, the bank remains in control of the situation and expects to be capable of decreasing defaults through its customer relations management.

In the first half of the year, the NPL and default rate were within the target area because the bank knows the behaviour of its established customers well.