Krungsri (Bank of Ayudhya PCL), a member of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), one of the world’s largest financial groups, announced its 2019 business direction with key strategies to upgrade digital platforms and innovation capacities for greater customer experience. Strengthening the collaboration within Krungsri Group and the synergy with MUFG, Krungsri has undergone digital transformation to enhance productivity and efficiency, while reaping benefits of the favourable operating environment with supportive external demand and private investment upcycle.
Krungsri President and Chief Executive Officer Mr. Noriaki Goto said, “2018 was another year of great achievements for Krungsri with remarkable financial performance. Among them, we have recorded an impressive loan growth that outperformed the industry peers despite a challenging operating environment, while our non-interest income was outstanding in spite of the impacts from the digital fee waiver. Meanwhile, we’ve made a good progress of our key strategic themes under the current Medium-Term Business Plan. We have been successful in implementing ‘Think Digital First’ strategy as we adopted robust and smart technologies to digitize our business and operations. To become our customers’ main bank, we enhance customer experience toward greater customer engagement. In terms of enhancing retail and commercial banking platform to achieve sustainable growth, we upgraded advisory service quality for retail banking, boosted our digital and innovation capabilities for SMEs, and executed commercial banking transformation. As for 2019, Krungsri is strongly committed to adopting transformation to accelerate digital and innovation execution. We plan to invest in several projects including digital lending platforms, branch transformation and IT infrastructure upgrade, while utilizing multi and omni channels to enhance customer experience.”
“On strategies for our customer segments, Krungsri is determined to strengthen our leadership in the market of Japanese corporate and multinational corporate (JPC/MNC) by leveraging the strong JPC/MNC customer base to bring in businesses to other segments. Meanwhile, we aim to provide total financial solutions and fee-based businesses for corporate and investment banking, while continuing to grow assets with a focus on working capital solutions for SME customers. To maintain our leading position in consumer finance, we aim to enhance digital experiences for customers, employee and society, while improving service quality and speed to attract, retain and upgrade customers in the retail segment.” Mr. Goto added.
In 2019, the loans are expected to grow 6-8%, while it targets net interest margin at 3.4-3.6%. The non-interest income is expected to increase around 3-5% and the NPL ratio will be maintained at lower than 2.5%.