Krungsri Auto has joined with Kaidee.com to expand its online channel for auto loan service, aiming to capture a 25% market share of the 300,000 used cars sold online.
The total auto loan market has contracted the past four years but is rebounding in 2017, projected to grow by 10% to 500 billion baht.
"The government's promotion of the Thailand 4.0 era and the attempt to stimulate use of digital signatures will encourage online auto loan service in the country," said Pairote Cheunkrut, head of the Krungsri Auto Group at Bank of Ayudhaya Plc.
The company aims for the online channel to contribute 30% of new loan revenue over the next five years. The channel now accounts for less than 1% or 1.2 billion baht of new loans worth 150 billion baht. Krungsri Auto's new loans for this year are expected to increase by 12%, in line with the industry's pace.
Krungsri Auto and Kaidee.com plan to use application programming interface (API) technology to connect Krungsri Auto's system with Kaidee's, creating customised loan calculators for each car posted on the RodKaidee platform.
Customers can also input their preferred down payment and the system will display the starting instalment with a comparison graph in real time. The service will let customers do auto financial planning and apply for a Krungsri Rod Baan loan with just one click.
The new service, through a two-year exclusive partnership, will reduce difficulties for consumers in trying to find financing services and getting references from other sources before making decisions, Mr Pairote said.
Some 300,000 used cars are available online, 25% of which are private cars.
"The partnership will generate 400 million baht in revenue from the RodKaidee.com channel out of its existing 1.2 billion baht in online revenue," Mr Pairote said.
Tiwa York, chief executive of the Kaidee classifieds website, said the car marketplace has been the largest category in terms of traffic on Kaidee, leading to the launch of RodKaidee in May.
RodKaidee has more than 4.1 million unique visitors a month, with an average of 415 cars sold daily.
