Kasikornbank (KBank) is in the process of appointing a new president to replace Teeranun Srihong, who stepped down earlier this year.
Patchara Samalapa, the senior executive vice-president, is tipped to be promoted as KBank's fourth president. The procedure is being considered by the Bank of Thailand, said an industry source.
Mr Patchara has been in charge of all banking segments, including retail, small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) and corporate banking, since January of this year. He also directly manages the bank's SME business.
Former president Mr Teeranun resigned from his position on April 5. He is chairman of the board of commissioners of the Digital Economy Promotion Agency.
KBank, the country's fourth-largest lender by total assets, has a unique top executive structure with four presidents. The bank's latest president, Pipit Aneknithi, was appointed on Jan 1, 2016. The other two presidents are Predee Daochai and Kattiya Indaravijaya.
The top management team supports the bank's business expansion under many spheres covering both domestic and regional banking businesses. The presidents are viewed as four pillars symbolising the bank's strength.
KBank has some management shake-ups ahead. After Mr Patchara's promotion, the SME business head will become vacant, while a position for the chief of retail business has also been open for some time after former executive vice-president Noppawan Jermhansa, who served in the retail business division, resigned from her position in July.
Ms Kattiya said the bank will undergo an internal management restructuring to fill vacant positions. With wider job areas for both conventional and innovative banking businesses, KBank needs to prepare its readiness in terms of staff and executives, she said.
Ms Kattiya said the bank has been testing digital personal lending, a new financial service, for one year. K Plus is a closed-loop service offered to the bank's existing mobile banking customers.
Under a credit scoring system based on cash flow analysis of 8 million K Plus users, the bank approves personal loans for existing customers automatically. But customer response for the service remains low compared with the global standard -- 2% of total offered clients.
Results have suggested customers who have positive cash flow do not want loans, therefore the bank needs to develop big data analytics in a more sophisticated manner, she said.
