Siam Commercial Bank revamps digital banking efforts

It aims to expand its mobile banking user base to 10m by 2020.

With its plans to overtake Kasikornbank as the leader in digital banking, Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) made significant changes to its digital banking efforts, Maybank Kim Eng reports.

For Maybank Kim Eng, SCB's revamped mobile app looks more user-friendly and as good as Kasikornbank's, if not better. It aims to expand its user base from 4-5m users at present to 10m by 2020.

Here's more from Maybank Kim Eng:

SCB has also started revamping its physical branches. It has set up small branches, namely SCB Express, which are equipped with more advanced ATMs to handle services typically provided by full branches.

The above will entail high IT investments in the short term. SCB has set aside THB40b or 80% of its annual opex for such investments, though the cost will be spread over years. Future opex should be lower as its digital platform should allow the bank to cut spending on branches, staff and cash management.