Joint venture to apply for one of three Thai virtual bank licences
Energy conglomerate Gulf Energy Development Plc (Gulf) plans to embark on a virtual bank journey with partners, including telecom giant Advanced Info Service Plc (AIS) and Krungthai Bank Plc (KTB).
This year, the joint venture will apply for a virtual bank licence with the Bank of Thailand (BOT) with an initial investment of 5 billion baht, said Sarath Ratanavadi, Gulf’s chief executive officer on Tuesday.
The central bank had earlier announced that it would limit the issuing of licences to only three virtual banks to ensure the financial system’s stability could be maintained as new financial services are offered through digital channels.
Sarath expressed confidence that the joint venture will harness its expertise to drive the virtual bank business forward, with technology know-how provided by Gulf, AIS’s large user base of over 45 million phone numbers, and KTB’s expertise in the financial industry.
He added that the BOT’s regulations on virtual banks will help maximise access to loans at reasonable interest rate for users in Thailand, while maintaining the security of digital transactions, which Gulf has appropriate technology to support.
“Clients looking to borrow from 10,000 to 100,000 baht will find it easier to do so [via virtual banks],” said Sarath. “The trend is moving toward digital, AI and cloud platforms, and we plan to build a new data centre next year, as well as extend our reach in digital infrastructure.”
Thailand now has 17 conventional commercial banks, and so three should be an appropriate number of virtual banks, noted the BOT.
Singapore has four virtual banks and 34 conventional banks, while Malaysia has three virtual banks and 42 conventional, and in South Korea the ratio is three to 52.
