Thailand

The 29th annual Asiamoney Brokers Poll invited chief investment officers, fund managers and investment analysts to take part. Voters represented fund management houses, insurance companies, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, hedge funds and wealth managers from around the world. A total of 6,540 valid individual responses from 3,100 different institutions, including 411 hedge funds, were received.

Thailand’s generals are pushing a 20-year infrastructure plan that aims to transform the country into a high value economy and logistics hub for Asean. The cornerstone project is the Eastern Economic Corridor. Will it succeed?

It should be a sure winner, with a large international presence, a strong domestic franchise and customer loyalty second to none, so why has Bangkok Bank lost out to its nimble local and foreign competitors, and what can CEO Chartsiri Sophonpanich do to put it right?

Bualuang Securities

Bank of Ayudhya, known locally as Krungsri, is widely viewed by analysts as the bank to watch in Thailand over the next five years. Since its acquisition by Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi in 2013, Bank of Ayudhya, under CEO Noriaki Goto, has built up an enviable reputation for the quality of its international management team, its expertise in consumer finance and product development and its new focus on SMEs.

Thailand’s small and medium-sized enterprise sector was probably not the best business segment to be in over the past 12 months. Several high-profile companies struggled to service or repay their loans, leading to debt restructurings and write-offs at the banks. According to credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s, the non-performing loan ratio for SMEs rose to 4.63% in 2017 from 4.4% in 2016, and exceeded the NPL ratio of 2.97% for total loans in the banking system.

In Thailand’s fast-changing digital banking landscape, it is hard to stay ahead of the game. Still, under head of digital banking Tana Pothikamjorn, Siam Commercial Bank, the country’s oldest lender, has done precisely that. Building on the bank’s reputation as a disrupter, SCB was the first Thai commercial bank to scrap fees on digital transactions for money transfers and bill payments in March.

In a banking landscape divided between large domestic banks, large international banks and hybrids, Citi Thailand, under country head Darren Buckley, stands out as something a bit different. A truly global bank, it also boasts a large retail presence, made up of three full service branches and 32 Citi network branches that provide a complete range of consumer banking, credit card and foreign exchange services to over one million customers. Then there is Citi’s formidable network of corporate clients, ranging from multinationals and financial institutions to public sector and local conglomerates.

When it comes to private banking in Thailand, two names stand head and shoulders above the competition: Credit Suisse and Phatra Securities, a member of Kiatnakin Phatra financial group. Both are leaders in the field. But while Phatra is known as the pioneer of Thailand’s onshore private wealth management service, Credit Suisse is a global bank that offers both onshore and offshore wealth management services to wealthy individuals, families and entrepreneurs, including a large percentage of the names on Forbes’ list of Thailand’s 50 richest people.