3 February 2022
Bangkok (3 February 2022) – Krungsri (Bank of Ayudhya PCL and its business units), a member of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), one of the world’s largest financial groups, announced its 2022 business direction to realize its aspiration to “Be the Preferred Thai Bank Connecting Customers’ Needs across ASEAN” with three strategic thrusts focusing on ASEAN Connectivity, Trusted Partner, and Digital & Innovation. Krungsri is committed to taking customers to ‘Go ASEAN with Krungsri’ by leveraging MUFG’s global networks and expertise.
Mr. Seiichiro Akita, Krungsri President and Chief Executive Officer, said “Through another challenging year, Krungsri has remained committed to proactively assisting all of our impacted customers with relief measures while maintaining solid and resilient financial performance. Looking back on the first year of our Medium-Term Business Plan (MTBP) 2021-2023, Krungsri has successfully implemented our MTBP in several areas, especially ASEAN Enhancement & Expansion, with our latest footprint in Vietnam, our fifth country in ASEAN. We have also enhanced our Ecosystem & Partnership with our mobility, living, and commerce ecosystems - three key focused ecosystems built around today’s customers’ lifestyle. We also embarked on our Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) journey with the announcement of a carbon neutrality vision and the launch of Thailand’s first sustainability-linked loan and sustainability-linked bond. This accomplishment has led Krungsri to become the leader in ESG Finance Market. We continued our successes in Digital and Innovation with our core technology modernization and strong support of the Bank of Thailand’s Smart Financial Infrastructure to drive Thailand’s Digital Economy.”
“In 2022, our second year of the MTBP, we are ready to support our customers to ‘Go ASEAN with Krungsri’. This will be underpinned by three key areas of focus: taking our customers Beyond Thailand by leveraging MUFG’s comprehensive networks and Krungsri’s strengths to build ASEAN Connectivity across ASEAN markets; being a Trusted Partner by providing services Beyond Banking for both commercial and retail customers; and continuing to go Beyond Tech with Digital and Innovation to connect customers’ needs.”, Mr. Akita added.
Mr. Pairote Cheunkrut, Krungsri Chief Strategy Officer, said “Krungsri is the Thai bank that has the most extensive networks in ASEAN. By leveraging our strength and uniqueness as part of MUFG, we are building ASEAN Connectivity across ASEAN markets and accelerating our positioning towards becoming an ASEAN Regional Player. Currently, Krungsri’s footprint in ASEAN has served customers with over 500,000 accounts in Cambodia, Lao PDR, and the Philippines, totaling more than 64,000-million-baht liquidity added to customers. Simultaneously, for Thai customers, we are expanding cross-border value chain solutions to various industries and enhancing our advisory services to provide commercial customers with business opportunities in 9 countries across ASEAN and over 50 countries globally through the MUFG network. Serving retail and commercial customers, we are expanding our cross-border transactions from 3 countries in 2021 to 8 countries in 2022. Currently, more than 500,000 payment and remittance transactions accounting for more than 200,000 million USD are made through Krungsri across ASEAN markets each year.”
“As a Trusted Partner for customers, we are embedding ourselves to serve customers in their daily lives. We have gone beyond being a bank by establishing three key ecosystems: Mobility, Living, and Commerce. This year, we will continue to build value-added partnerships in various business sectors including energy, telecommunications, insurance, real estate, and retail & e-commerce. We are also working with partners in digital assets and private markets to bring unique and attractive investment products to our customers. Moreover, we have embarked on our ESG journey incorporation with MUFG with the goal of becoming a Net Zero GHG emission on own operation by 2030 and a Net Zero GHG emission across the finance portfolio by 2050. We also remain committed to championing ESG finance and supporting our customers in their journey towards achieving their sustainability goals.
To lead by Digital and Innovation, Krungsri can leverage MUFG networks and its global investment in global tech. In 2022, Krungsri will focus on expanding APIs with its partner banks in ASEAN, co-building AI Tech Lab with MUFG and partner such as Grab, leading in Smart Financial Infrastructure both domestic and cross border, and enhancing blockchain and AI solutions. We plan to invest 7,000 – 8,000 million baht in IT this year”, Mr. Pairote said.
“With ASEAN Connectivity, Trusted Partner, and Digital and Innovation as our key focus for 2022, we are ready to take customers to go Beyond Thailand, Beyond Banking, and Beyond Tech.”, Mr. Pairote concluded.
Krungsri expects its loan business to grow by 3-5% through 2022, while the targeted net interest margin (NIM) is at 3.1-3.3%. It is expected that non-interest income will remain flat, and the ratio of Non-Performing Loans (NPL) ratio will be around 2.6%.