Banks keen on e-KYC to raise account numbers
Bangkok Bank, SCB testing in BoT sandbox
Two big banks are hopeful that Electronic Know Your Customer (e-KYC) and National Digital ID will at least double the number of new deposit accounts and significantly increase their customer base.
“As these technologies are adopted, our new deposit account numbers are expected to double from next year onwards,” said Bangkok Bank executive vice-president Prassanee Ouiyamaphan.
The bank currently has 17 million deposit accounts. It aims for 8 million users of Bualuang mBanking, the bank’s mobile banking app, by year-end, up from 5 million now.
Bangkok Bank, the country’s largest lender by assets, is testing out e-KYC in the Bank of Thailand’s regulatory sandbox.
The bank’s e-KYC will use facial recognition software to verify personal identities online to open new deposit accounts.
With the technology, customers are allowed to open new deposit accounts through Bualuang mBanking without going to the bank’s physical branches.
The government’s National Digital ID policy scheme, set to begin in the final quarter of this year, will also help simplify personal verification and facilitate the bank’s customer base expansion.
Despite falling financial transactions, particularly in bill payments and money transfers at brick-and-mortar branches, new deposit accounts numbers continue to increase, Mrs Prassanee said, adding that the bank plans to maintain branch network numbers throughout this year.
Bangkok Bank has 1,165 traditional branches nationwide, up from 1,160 at the end of last year.
With rising digital banking transactions, physical branches, particularly the standalone type, are at risk of being shuttered.
Apiphan Charoenanusorn, senior executive vice-president of Siam Commercial Bank (SCB), agreed that both e-KYC and National Digital ID will more than double the number of new deposit accounts.
The bank’s total deposit accounts number about 14 million.
SCB, the country’s second-largest bank by assets, emerged as the first financial institution to test e-KYC in the central bank’s regulatory sandbox. The bank’s e-KYC uses facial recognition technology.
Those who want to open new deposit accounts at SCB are required to fill in personal details in the SCB Easy App, scan their national ID and passport, then touch the passport to their smartphone. The passport is used for facial data. Users then need to take three pictures of their face, including when they smile and blink, to certify that they are a real person.
The bank has seen small numbers of new deposit accounts opened via the new service because it remains in the regulatory sandbox and the bank has not been promoting the service much, Mrs Apiphan said.