Highest Honor – Bangkok Bank has been awarded the “Sao Sema Dharmachakra Award 2024”, the highest honor for promoting and contributing to Buddhism. The Bank takes great pride in being the first and only financial institution and commercial bank to achieve this recognition while reinforcing its status as a “trusted partner” to Thai society. The Bank’s executives and staff have joined and preserved Buddhist activities that are organized each year, such as the Royal Kathin robe offering ceremony for 58 years and the ceremony to celebrate graduates of the 9th Grade Buddhist Theology exam for 51 years, as well as participating in other religious activities.

Bangkok Bank Executive Vice President Miss Pochanee Kongkalai represented the Bank in receiving the “Sao Sema Dharmachakra Award 2024” from Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn in the category of associations, organizations, foundations and agencies with activities promoting Buddhism. This is considered the highest honor in religion, and is organized by the Department of Religious Affairs, Ministry of Culture, to promote and honor good deeds and announce honors to those who have done good deeds for Buddhism. Bangkok Bank is the first and only financial institution and commercial bank to receive the “Sao Sema Dharmachakra Award 2024”, which reflects the success and pride in being committed to conducting business responsibly and creating sustainable value for society in terms of promoting and maintaining Buddhism in line with the Bank's sustainability policy for 80 years. religious activities.

Miss Pochanee said that: “Throughout the past 80 years, Bangkok Bank has adhered to the principle of operating its business with responsibility and creating sustainable value for society, in accordance with the policy of managing the organization for sustainability under ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) principles, especially in the social and religious dimensions. The Bank has continuously placed great importance on the preservation of Buddhism through various activities, in order to pass on good traditions and cultures while strengthening relationships with the community as well as promoting morality and ethics within the organization.

The Bank has been committed to conducting activities to promote Buddhism for half a century. The activities organized annually include:

1. Organizing the Royal Kathin Robe Offering Ceremony: Bangkok Bank is the first financial institution to receive the royal grace of presenting the Kathin robes to royal monasteries in every region of the country for 58 consecutive years since 1967 with the hope of lightening the royal burden and preserving Buddhism, culture, and traditions for the benefit of Buddhist monks. At the same time, the Bank has invited its executives, staff, customers, and the general public, including local people, to jointly restore the buildings and religious sites in each temple where the Kathin robes have been presented, with an aim to create participation and happiness for Buddhists who are an integral part of the sustainable continuation of Buddhism.
2. Organizing the ceremony to celebrate graduates of the 9th Grade Buddhist Theology exam to pay homage and express congratulations to the monks and novices who have diligently studied until they successfully passed the 9th Grade Buddhist Theology exam, which is the highest level of education in the Pali section of the Thai Sangha. Bangkok Bank is the first and only private sector company that has organized the celebration ceremony for monks who successfully pass the 9th Grade Buddhist Theology exam every year since 1974, which is the 51 consecutive years, demonstrating the Bank's strong determination to support and sustain the education of the Thai Sangha.
3. Organizing activities to bring the Bank’s directors, executives and staff to pay homage and perform Samijikamma (ask for forgiveness) to the members of the Sangha Supreme Council and senior monks during the Buddhist Lent festival. This is a tradition that Bangkok Bank has continued to practice for a long time.

Bangkok Bank is pleased with the excellent success of “The Big Blue Ocean Season 3” training course, which has encouraged the new generation of Thai entrepreneurs to prepare themselves for Digital Transformation. The program showcases success through special project competitions where participants gain hands-on experience using technology and AI to create solutions for business challenges, both reducing costs and increasing competitive capabilities. The bank hopes entrepreneurs will enhance their organizational efficiency and smoothly transition into the digital era. The program expands knowledge and builds business networks while standing beside entrepreneurs as a ‘trusted partner’ to support Thai businesses to adapt sustainably through disruption.

Bangkok Bank President Chartsiri Sophonpanich expressed his admiration and congratulated the winner at the closing ceremony of “The Big Blue Ocean Season 3” and said that the bank is strongly committed to encouraging entrepreneurs to recognize new dimensions of change as the world enters the digital era. This is particularly important given the rapid technological advances, especially in AI (Artificial Intelligence), which is transforming production and service sectors across almost all industries. These changes are rapidly shifting customer behaviors and demands, making it a crucial challenge that the bank wants entrepreneurs to be highly aware of. The current season of "The Big Blue Ocean" program focused on digital transformation, helping business owners and next-generation entrepreneurs transform businesses into the digital era. The program aims to equip participants with practical knowledge that can be immediately applied to modernize their businesses.

“Although technology and innovation will trigger points that require businesses to adapt and change, they are also opportunities for businesses to reduce costs and expand their businesses to meet customers’ needs in new ways. For example, using intelligent robots in the production process for precision and cost reduction, using AI technology to develop services, ranking from product recommendations to creating specific and effective marketing campaigns, etc. The important thing is that businesses must adapt by creating an organizational culture that is open to new things, understanding customer pain points, and using the capabilities of digital technology to develop sales channels, both online and offline, to reduce costs and increase business efficiency, as well as using AI to collect data and analyze in-depth to help businesses make decisions quickly and accurately. All of this is the intention of the Bank in designing the “The Big Blue Ocean” course, taking into account being “a trusted partner and reliable close friend” who is ready to drive and support businesspeople to adapt smoothly,” said Mr. Chatsiri. Mr. Kobsak Pootrakool, Senior Executive Vice President and Corporate Secretary of Bangkok Bank, said that the third season of The Big Blue Ocean is not only focusing on technology and the use of AI to further develop businesses, participants will also have a special opportunity to compete in a project competition under the concept of Transformation by using information, knowledge, and experiences gained throughout the course to jointly create solutions to solve problems and increase business potential. It was found that there were many interesting ideas that could help expand businesses, drive market access, and actually help reduce business costs. In addition, the closing ceremony also presented awards to participants who presented projects that could make the most of digital technology to create new business opportunities. The winning group was the Packaging & Envelope, which presented a packaging design using AI technology that reduced both production steps and time, met customer needs, and solved problems for the current printing business.

Mr. Sun Jantaveesomboon, Sales manager at S.R.C. Envelope Co., Ltd., a participant in the third season of "The Big Blue Ocean" and a member of the winning team winning the Digital Transformation Award and Innovation Award, said that his company has been in the printing and design business for more than 50 years. The company currently faces the challenges of higher competition and changing consumer behaviors, which demand products fast, while ordering fewer pieces but still need a unique design. Therefore, the traditional graphic design and production process does not meet the needs of small production and takes a long time to design. This training course shows that businesses can apply AI technology, so it can design accurately, quickly, and cover a wide range of products to meet customer needs.

"This project happened because the group wanted to reduce the gap and reduce the complicated process between the customer, the design team, and the printing house, so that customers could see the actual parts before production. It helps the printing house expand its business to more small customers who want to have their own branded packaging. Prior to participating in this training course, I considered that the modification of a large printing house would require high investment and hassle. But this training course exposes possible practices without the need for all the modifications. You can choose only the right thing for your business to deploy to the maximum benefit. After completing this training course, I will apply AI in my own business more seriously," said Mr. Sun.

Mr. Oran Klongchit, Chief Executive Officer at Eastinnova Co., Ltd., as the chairman of the third season of “The Big Blue Ocean”, said that he received advice from the previous season’s participants about the practical benefits of this course, which helped the business sector adapt to the digital age. The course content also helped update digital trends and new technologies, including listening to ideas and experiences from many speakers who are experts and gurus in various fields. In addition, it was an opportunity to meet and build relationships with business owners and successors in the same industry and across industries, resulting in knowledge exchange and the creation of in-depth networks that can be further developed together in the future.

Bangkok Bank has produced 150,000 ‘Nong Jud Save the Earth’ notebooks that provide money saving tips and easy-to-understand spending plans that children can apply in practice, as well as environmental knowledge to promote conservation of the environment and Thai seas through fun games with the kind whale shark “Nong Jud”, the big brother of the sea and cute mascot from Bangkok Bank. The notebook was well received as children can use it practically and it promotes effective learning. The Bank will continue to provide gifts for children every year as a “trusted partner and reliable close friend” staying beside Thai society in all aspects.

Bangkok Bank Executive Vice President Pochanee Kongkalai said the bank has produced 150,000 “Nong Jud Save the Earth” notebooks as a gift for children on Children’s Day 2025. The notebooks will be distributed to government and private agencies, as well as schools at the kindergarten and primary levels and foundations. It is used to teach finance in a simple way to children focusing on financial activities that children can learn and apply in daily life to promote the discipline of saving money for the future, which is an important starting point to a strong financial foundation. “Nong Jud Save the Earth” notebooks 2025 provide knowledge and activities about simple savings such as recording income and expenditure and setting a goal to save a little bit every day to achieve the goal of having more savings in the future.

The book also has a coloring game “Nong Jud Save the Earth”, featuring the kind whale shark and big brother of the sea who brings fun stories about waste sorting, ideas about effective waste management, and ideas on how to reduce waste at the source, especially plastic waste in water sources which decompose into smaller pieces and becomes a large number of microplastics floating in the sea. Currently, this is a big problem that affects marine animals, the ecosystem and also affects humans when eating seafood. In the past, Bangkok Bank, in collaboration with local government agencies and communities, has implemented comprehensive waste solutions including separating waste before disposing of it, and putting a stop to dumping garbage into water sources through the Bualuang Save the Earth project, which is a Bank project that helps conserve the environment and create sustainable value for society.

‘Nong Jud Save the Earth’ notebooks are made from Green Plus paper which has obtained the Green Label and Eco Fiber standards as it is made of more than 50% recycled paper with advanced production technology. Using this method, the production of 150,000 Nong Jud Save the Earth notebooks used 1,376 fewer trees, an increase from the previous reduction of 325 trees, the absorption of 111 million tons of Carbon Dioxide (CO2), up from 26 tons, reduced water consumption by 288,115 liters, up from 68,092 liters, reduced steam us by 43 fewer tons, up from 10 tons, and reduced total energy use by 6,622 fewer kilowatt-hours, up from 1,565 kilowatt-hours. This represents an efficient use of resources and is environmental friendly (data from Thai Paper Products Company Limited).

“Bangkok Bank aims to build awareness of both saving disciplines and environmental conservation from childhood through simple knowledge snippets in the Nong Jud Save the Earth notebook by using Nong Jud to connect of playing and learning. We've found that more than 90% of the notebooks produced by the bank for Children's Day each year are distributed to students at schools and foundations. This aligns with the bank's goal of creating value for a sustainable future. The bank continues to organize this activity annually to support young people as a trusted partner who is ready to stand beside Thai society in every aspect, starting from childhood through to becoming important forces for the nation,” Miss Pochanee said.

Bangkok Bank has distributed Nong Jud Save the Earth notebooks through its branch network to schools in communities or areas near bank branches nationwide, Bangkok Bank Schools, schools in the CONNEXT ED project, and schools in the Thai Kindness Power project as gifts for children and youth on National Children's Day 2025. The Bank continues to organize this activity annually.