Yuttachai Teyarachakul has a rather unique way of describing his gig at UOB’s Thailand unit: “Enthusiast in financial planning and customer analytics.”
The bank’s country head of personal financial services does so with a wink. But Yuttachai’s light-hearted description serves a dual purpose, pointing both to a personal passion and explaining why UOB’s private banking operation in Thailand is a standout in a market that is particularly hard to crack.
The analytical and research assets that Yuttachai prioritizes stem in part from the timing of his start date at UOB: September 2008. That was the same month Lehman Brothers collapsed, causing the biggest shockwaves in southeast Asia since the region’s 1997 to 1998 meltdown.
Last year brought something even worse: a health crisis that quickly became an economic one, exposing pre-existing conditions for which Asian markets were unready. Yet UOB’s high net worth clients were well served by the three-pillared approach to markets that the firm’s private bank champions: keeping clients informed about the big things; keeping them updated on risks big and small; and staying engaged.
That