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BANKING
WICHIT CHANTANUSORNSIRI
The state-owned Government Savings Bank has launched a new mobile banking programme promising to deliver financial services to their customers' doorsteps.
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| GSB staff show off one of the 20 customised vans outfitted with ATMs to provide basic transaction services. Staff will also offer financial advisory services and credit information from the vans. PHRAKRIT JUNTAWONG |
The bank, which already boasts the country's only "boat branch" for customers living along Bangkok canals, has outfitted 20 vans with the latest in electronic banking technology to provide mobile financial services.
Each of the vans includes an ATM, GPS location-finding technology and mobile communications systems to process the same routine financial transactions as one can do at a fixed branch.
Lersuk Chuladesa, the GSB president and chief executive, said the bank was investing two million baht for each van, to be used in communities such as the Bo Bae market, the Muang Thong market and the Pracha Niwet market.
He said the bank would expand its programmes to offer financial services in hard-to-reach communities nationwide, including for island residents on Samui and Koh Chang using boats and modern telecommunications technology.
"We want to reach out to customers who might not be able to conveniently get to a normal branch," Mr Lersuk said.
The GSB has offered waterborne services since 1958, but this is the first time that it is expanding beyond inland rivers and canals to the open ocean.
"We're not really looking at whether these programmes are financially viable for the bank. Rather, the priority is to help consumers everywhere access financial services," Mr Lersuk said.
A village located two kilometres away from a bank branch meant that residents needed to travel four km round trip simply to make an ordinary transaction.
"What is the cost in travelling alone? With our mobile banking programme, we can bring financial services right to their door," Mr Lersuk said.
The GSB, in the middle ranks of Thailand's commercial banks in terms of asset size, is the largest provider of financial services in the country, with over 30 million deposit and credit accounts nationwide.
Mr Lersuk said the GSB was also promoting its housing loan services as other banks tighten their lending standards due to the weakening economy.
The GSB, with a mortgage portfolio of 120 billion baht, offers loans with fixed rates of 2.5% per year for the first two years, with later years half a percentage point below the minimum rates.
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