Bangkok Bank has seen greater business opportunities in trade finance with Russia in the face of bilateral trade talks.
The bank has started to see financial transactions between two countries, such as trade finance for Thai traders exporting to Russia, as well as payments made by Russian tourists travelling to Thailand who number 1.3 million a year.
The executives of BBL, the country's largest bank by total assets, joined the government's delegation to Russia for bilateral talks last month.
The two countries expressed a wish to expand each other's markets. Thailand is looking to sell more farm commodities and seafood, while Russia is hoping to sell more arms and high-technology products to Thailand.
The Thai government projected bilateral trade would double to US$10 billion by 2016 from $4-5 billion now.
The booming trade means more business activities for the private sector of the two countries, as well as financial exposure, said Bangkok Bank senior executive vice-president Chansak Fuangfu.
In addition, Russian investors are interested in the Thai-Myanmar Dawei project.
BBL is also monitoring the progress of infrastructure projects in search of opportunities.
Thailand and Myanmar recently decided to set up a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to manage Myanmar's massive deep-sea port and special economic zone in Dawei.
The details are expected to be wrapped up in May.
The SPV will take over the Dawei concession from Italian-Thai Development Plc, the country's largest constructor by market value.
After that, a company will be set up to handle each element of the project.
Mr Chansak said Thai companies will have opportunities on offshore business expansion and investment.
However, Thailand's direct outbound investments would slow down this year after it shows stronger worth than foreign direct investment (FDI) in the year before because it mainly depends on business opportunities.