Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) plans to increase banking agent partnerships after its financial services at 7-Eleven stores delivered higher-than-expected transactions.
The bank received a positive response from customers using banking services, especially deposits, at Counter Service, a payment service provider at 7-Eleven, said SCB president Sarat Ruttanaporn.
Financial transactions at Counter Service hit 10,000 a month, far above the target of 1,000 a month, Mr Sarat said.
SCB, the country's largest lender by assets, has offered transactions at 11,100 7-Eleven branches nationwide from March 29. Deposits average 5,000-10,000 baht.
Vendors make the most deposits there, and the bank sees ample opportunities to expand the customer base, especially upcountry.
The bank's three banking agent partners are Thailand Post Office, Tesco Lotus and 7-Eleven.
SCB is in talks with potential new banking agents. Some deals are expected to be concluded by this year, Mr Sarat said.
After hundreds of brick-and-mortar SCB branches were shuttered in recent years, the bank will maintain existing traditional branches until year-end.
The number of ATMs and new automated-service outlets, called SCB Express, will be kept unchanged this year.
The bank now has about 900 physical branches and 67 outlets of SCB Express.
Transactions at SCB branches for the four months through April fell 19% from the year-earlier period, while those made through ATMs increased 15% and those via digital channels surged 117%.
Tana Pothikamjorn, first senior vice-president for digital banking at SCB, said digital banking transactions are averaging 100 million transactions a month, up from 80 million last year.
There are around 9 million users of SCB Easy, the mobile banking app.
Although it's likely that SCB will increase the number of mobile banking users to 12 million from total 15 million depositors, the bank doesn't expect a significant increase, as the digital channel doesn't suit some.
"Next year we will focus on active users and transactions rather than user numbers," Mr Tana said.
SCB plans to launch new features for both finance and non-finance to boost transactions via the digital platform and cancel some features that fail to get good responses from users to keep pace with consumer needs.
