Bangkok--1 Apr--KASIKORNBANK
Aiming to maintain its digital banking leadership, KASIKORNBANK revealed a mission to offer advanced innovative services, with more than 1.47 billion Baht already dedicated to IT development, a strategy that could support the drive for KBank to become the “Main Operating Bank” for customers.
According to KASIKORNBANK President Mr. Teeranun Srihong, current global IT uses for communication are popular on four fronts: 1) online social media boom 2) role of smartphones which are beneficial in daily life 3) data storage platforms or “Cloud Technology” which helps save costs, and 4) “Big Data” on social networks which can be used for consumer behavior analysis and improved consumer access.
In response to this, KBank reinforces its strategy to maintain the leadership in the digital banking industry with the “Tomorrow Comes Today” mission that offers advanced financial innovations, to better respond to customers’ business and lifestyle demands. Additionally, the Bank supports diverse organizations and programs that initiate innovations for a ‘better future life’, based on the ‘K Funding the Future’ concept. To accomplish the Bank’s mission, three major pillars of administrative structure and performance targets have been laid out, as follows:
1) Internal driving force to become an organization of innovations for the future: The Bank has set up a new innovative product development department, equipped with more than 100 staff members, who will be responsible for developing and implementing advanced digital banking services. A marketing team to strengthen customer relations via online social media networks and a systems development team to support new products have been set up. Also, a special taskforce, comprising executives and staff members, has been established to monitor and analyze changes in IT development trends, consumer behaviors, the domestic and international business environment; with a view to providing expert guidance for service enhancement planning.
2) Innovations - development and planning for the future: KBank has embarked on a three-year digital banking development plan. The main focus is to respond to changing customer behaviors by offering faster services with mobile banking developments and compatibility with new technology. Mobile banking services, which are expected to be extremely popular in the future, will be enhanced to enable a complete range of automated contactless services, available for easy one-stop services including funds transfer, bill payments, public transport fees payments and online shopping. When completed, KBank will be the first bank in Thailand to offer such “state-of-the–art” services.
As for corporate customers, technology-oriented service enhancement will be used to extend existing services for greater flexibility. For example, On-Mobile Platform services will be offered to satisfy SME customers via diverse digital channels, thereby enabling them to manage personal and business accounts from one place. Moreover, they will be provided On-Could Platform, which is a service that responds to businesses’ basic needs and reduces technological costs for business expansion, thereby improving flexibility. As for large corporate customers with complex business structures, the Bank will connect them and their business partners with KBank service systems to enable upstream and downstream business connections; while supplying appropriate digital platforms and experience to improve service efficiency for system users.
As well as financial service innovations, KBank is supporting novel innovation programs for the future, based on the “K Funding the Future concept”, to help enable the development of innovations that will support people in Thailand and the global community. The first program, which has been in operation for five years, is the “Microsoft Imagine Cup Thailand”, a joint project with Microsoft (Thailand) Co., Ltd. This year, KBank will offer cash prizes for the winning team’s project and the team that wins the highest votes at www.kfundingthefuture.com; to help participants to realize the achievement of socially and nationally relevant solutions.
3) Transaction security management: KBank has placed great emphasis on digital banking security and will continue to adhere to strict standards, funding regular studies of trending internet threats and adopting stringent pre-emptive strategies to prevent losses to business and personal banking customers; implementing consistent IT upgrades to prevent cyber criminals from attacking these services. In terms of operating risk management and fraud prevention, the Bank has set up an ‘around-the-clock’ team to monitor and safeguard against fraud, this team is called the Fraud Management Team. KBank has also developed a dedicated call center team available for customer assistance, advice and complaints.
K-Cyber Banking services, has implemented advanced security measures, beyond conventional SMS OTP procedures. These security protocols are applied through special mobile applications to increase security. In addition, related procedures have been improved in compliance with the ISO27001 standard. For K-Mobile Banking Plus, the Bank has applied the ultimate security with triple-lock technology: specific mobile device locks; registered mobile phone number locks; and six-digit user password locks.
Mr. Teeranun added that the Bank has set a three-year goal for business strategies under the “Tomorrow Comes Today” mission statement, which is expected to bring about a new digital banking standard and offer advanced services responding to customers daily lifestyle needs and to improves services for businesses, with the application of maximum security measures. All of which are expected to enable KBank to become the “Main Operating Bank”, the bank that is the most used by customers to service every financial lifestyle.
At the end of 2013, KBank’s market share in the digital banking business was ranked number one at 28 percent, with a total of 2.59 million retail customers using K-Mobile Banking and K-Cyber Banking services, of which new customers increased by 51 percent from 2012. The total transaction value, conducted through the internet and across mobile banking platforms amounted to 420 million transactions per year, representing more than 2 trillion Baht in value. The most popular transaction conducted was fund transfers, accounting for 70 percent of the total transactions, followed by mobile top-ups and bill payments, respectively. KBank has already invested 1.47 billion Baht for IT hardware and software development.
According to the Bank of Thailand’s data, the industry’s total usage of mobile phone bill payments at the end of 2013 increased 28 percent from 2012, compared to 70 percent of total transaction growth, coming through the Bank’s K-Mobile Banking with 700 billion Baht in total value. K-Mobile Banking customer number has increased 66 percent over-year.