Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) brings financial power to Thailand’s unbanked population

Thailand is undergoing a demographic change. In 2023, Millennials make up a large block of the country’s key consumers. They behave quite differently from older generations, and as consumers, they have their own distinct preferences.

For example, younger Thais are less loyal to traditional banking services. Research by McKinsey suggests that Millennials are "willing to switch banks and try new financial services, particularly if they feel they can get a superior digital experience elsewhere." The firm estimates that 26% of Thai consumers switched banks between 2020 and 2021.

A financially inclusive Thailand
Over the past few years, Thailand has made significant progress toward greater financial inclusion. It launched PromptPay, a real-time payment platform, and encouraged FinTech companies to develop innovative loan services.

Even so, half of the population remains unbanked with no access to financial products, while 18% are underbanked, lacking access to anything other than a bank account.

Thailand's second-largest commercial bank, Siam Commercial Bank (SCB), provides customers with a full suite of financial services. In 2021, SCB began transforming its business model by incorporating digital technology, leveraging the advantages of cloud computing to build a core digital banking system. That year, the bank's transactions increased by 58%. Roughly 84% of its activities were digitalized, while 70% of its transaction volume took place online. This rapid progress was enabled by the incorporation of several technological solutions.

In traditional brick-and-mortar banking, loan seekers would bring their applications to a bank teller for review, a paper-based process that could take days or even weeks. It was complex, expensive for the bank, and inconvenient for customers, especially those living in remote areas. Moreover, the slow service and lack of personalized marketing made it hard for SCB to attract Millennial customers.

To make loan origination more efficient, SCB adopted a cloud-based solution that allowed the bank to digitalize many of its loan services. Now, customers can simply click a few buttons, upload supporting documents, and receive a quick response to their loan application. It’s more convenient for customers and requires fewer bank resource. Moreover, it allows SCB to tap into a large market of small loans.

Huawei has operated in Thailand for more than 20 years, and SCB chose the company to deploy its new digital banking solutions. Within three months, the digital loan service attracted 45,000 new customers.

SCB and Huawei have successfully deployed innovations that make financial services more convenient and give more people in Thailand access to the benefits of digital banking. SCB's vision is to become the digital banking choice for half of Thailand's population and the most comprehensive bank in the country overall. Huawei looks forward to supporting SCB in achieving that ambitious goal.