Bangkok Bank (BBL), Thailand's largest bank by assets, aims for double-digit growth in credit card spending next year in line with Thailand's continued economic recovery.
Improving economic momentum and higher purchasing power for the bank's credit cardholders, comprising mostly the upper income segment, is expected to support card spending growth of 10% next year, said Shoke Na Ranong, executive vice-president and manager of the credit card division.
For the first 10 months this year, the bank logged an increase of credit card spending by 8.59% from the end of last year, higher than the 6% growth rate of the industry, Mr Shoke said.
The bank's credit cardholders mostly earn a minimum income of 30,000 baht per month. This upper market segment has high purchasing power. The Bank of Thailand set minimum income at 15,000 per month for credit card applicants.
However, Bangkok Bank plans to pay more attention to customers near the minimum income level.
"We are studying entering that segment to widen our market," he said.
Under this strategy, its non-performing loans (NPLs) for credit cards are projected to rise marginally next year, which is controllable, said Mr Shoke.
The bank's NPLs for its business clients are 1.8%, up from 1.7% at the end of last year, in line with its expansion. BBL has issued 2.2 million credit cards, up from 1.9 million last year.
The bank also launched electronic data capture (EDC) technology by using quick response (QR) code payment through these machines. The new technology and lower merchant fees for QR code payment are expected to attract more merchants.
BBL aims to add 100,000 EDC terminals to the existing 100,000 terminals. It also targets increasing new merchant customers to 100,000 from 70,000 by next year, focusing on mid-sized shops.
The fee for QR code payment on EDC is 0.25% of the transaction, down from 0.55% for credit cards.
BBL shares closed yesterday on the SET at 198.50 baht, down one baht, in trade worth 354.7 million baht.
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