Financial Inclusion & Financial Literacy
Commitment
To promote financial inclusion opportunities for vulnerable groups including those in remote areas, disabled people, and SME and to improve the capacity to support sustainable inclusion
To provide financial knowledge to empower society and customers in order to help achieve lifelong financial stability and enhance access to new financial and business opportunities
Materiality
We place importance on promoting financial inclusion and financial literacy as they provide the foundations for building the financial stability of households, enhancing competitiveness and reducing inequality in society, as well as delivering stable growth for the country. Moreover, we gain business benefits from financial inclusion and financial literacy as this will help expand our customer base in the long run. We strive to provide financial education and increase access to financial services for both individual and business customers, especially SME, as well as the general public, including vulnerable groups, by extending service coverage and developing products and services that meet their needs. We also share business and financial knowledge through multiple channels.
Management Approach
We are committed to developing financial products and services as well as expanding service channels to address customer needs. We promote financial literacy among customers and the general public through our own initiatives and through collaborations with other partners, public and private. We have identified two key advantages from promoting financial inclusion and financial literacy: 1. Opportunity to strengthen businesses and households and reduce inequality in access to opportunities, which is a form of corporate social responsibility for our stakeholders; and 2. Opportunity to expand the Bank’s customer base and generate long-term income.
We have developed strategies to promote financial inclusion and financial literacy as internal guidelines for our relevant internal units and functions. These strategies focus on the following three areas:
Moreover, we continue to monitor and evaluate the results of these activities to gain insights that can be used to develop and improve our products and services, as well as to enhance the content and format of financial literacy training to better suit the needs of target customers.
We have developed strategies to promote financial inclusion and financial literacy as internal guidelines for our relevant internal units and functions. These strategies focus on the following three areas:
- Preparing for an aged society by promoting saving and debt management
- Building a strong foundation for the economy by providing loan support to SME and farmers, as well as providing knowledge and skills in various fields in order to enhance their long-term potential to access credit
- Extending financial opportunities to vulnerable groups by developing products and services and providing financial literacy in easily accessible formats
Moreover, we continue to monitor and evaluate the results of these activities to gain insights that can be used to develop and improve our products and services, as well as to enhance the content and format of financial literacy training to better suit the needs of target customers.
Key Activities
Promotion of Financial Inclusion for Individual Customers
Banking Agents
We appointed banking agents in order to further increase the range of service channels through which various groups of people can conduct banking more conveniently close to home, especially those in provincial and rural communities, who have no access to digital channels such as Bangkok Bank Mobile Banking or Bualuang iBanking or cannot go to branches during working hours. These include 7-Eleven, Lotus’s, True Money, AIS, Kerry Express and Thailand Post with service points in all provinces across Thailand.
Bualuang ATM
We offer services through nearly 10,000 Bualuang ATM and Bualuang CDM/ADM to ensure that customers and the public can access banking services. We have improved Bualuang ATM to offer more diverse services that respond to customer needs including cardless withdrawal and cash deposit and withdrawal in one machine. Moreover, we have developed a special function to facilitate financial transactions for visually impaired people, which makes services more convenient and secure for users under standards mutually set by members of the Thai Bankers’ Association. This service does not only respond to the cash needs of visually impaired people, it also promotes convenient and secure self-service so that they can access financial services like other people. In 2021, there were more than 7,290 ATM machines nationwide supporting the transaction mode for the visually impaired function.
Bangkok Bank Mobile Banking and Bualuang iBanking
We continually develop Bangkok Bank Mobile Banking to be up-to-date, easy-to-use, convenient, fast and safe to meet the needs of all customer groups and promote financial inclusion anytime anywhere. Users can manage their finances in one place using this application, with services ranging from savings account opening, transfer-withdraw-top up, bill payment and investment management as well as identity verification without the need to visit branches. The Bank also offers Bualuang iBanking services for customers to manage their finances with ease, convenience and safety anywhere anytime through computers and tablets.
e-Savings Account
We offer e-Savings accounts through Bangkok Bank Mobile Banking to promote financial inclusion as customers can open an e-Savings account by themselves anytime, anywhere free of charge with no minimum deposit requirement or fee for cross-border transactions.
Promotion of Financial Inclusion for Business Customers and Farmers
Loans for SMEs
The Bank values and believes in the potential of Thai SMEs as a key driver of the Thai economy. Therefore, we support the sustainable growth of SMEs through a variety of tailored loan products to meet their needs, such as Business Loans for Business Flexibility, Bualuang Loans for Franchise Business, Bualuang Green Loans, and Loans for Gas Station Dealers. Businesses can apply for the services at a branch or through our website.
Provision of Financial Literacy to Customers and the Public
Financial Stability with the Bualuang Family
We promote financial education and financial discipline to support stability and wealth for people of all genders and ages by sharing useful knowledge and articles through our Facebook Financial Stability with the Bualuang Family page with the intention that the knowledge will help inspire wider groups of people to be more financially prudent. Furthermore, we support financial literacy for businesses and educational institutions by organizing lecturers, experts and executives to share useful knowledge with employees and students.
2S (Saving and Service)
The Bank has established a policy to promote financial literacy among the general public from young people to retirees. We introduced the 2S Project to encourage our employees to organize financial knowledge sharing activities to address the financial needs of customers and people of all ages to raise awareness on the importance of financial planning as well as to recommend useful financial products to build financial security for the future.
Financial Education Project for Visually Impaired People
We have continuously organized activities to provide equal learning and access to financial services for visually impaired people. In 2021, we launched “Fin Lit for the Blind” to produce a guide to conducting financial transactions for visually-impaired people and selected articles or books with useful financial knowledge on financial planning, debt management and recommendations on financial and investment products to create audiobooks for the Read for the Blind application developed by the Thailand Association of the Blind. The project also provides a training program for Bank volunteers to learn how to read clearly and accurately with the recording quality tested before distribution. Altogether 116 of our employees have participated in this initiative and visually impaired people have accessed the audiobook service more than 3,200 times.
Financial Awareness for Young Thais project and BBL The Trainer
In collaboration with the Thai Bankers’ Association (TBA) and member banks, we ran a project to promote financial awareness among young Thais for the third consecutive year with the objective of enhancing their capabilities and financial literacy through a learning-by-gaming approach for university students across Thailand. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021, activities were moved to online platforms using virtual training. Since its inception, more than 20,000 students from 42 universities have participated in the project. We also conducted the BBL The Trainer Program to train 285 employees as volunteer lecturers for the project.
Bangkok Bank Puan Koo Kit SME
We created an online learning platform under the name Bangkok Bank SME in 2015 covering multiple channels such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram. This online social network offers news and information for SME in all business sectors through articles, analyses and video clips of successful customers sharing experiences, as well as training and seminars. In 2021, we continued to educate and support SME and develop interesting programs such as the SME Clinic Exclusive, SME Clinic Influencer, Fininvest, Fininsight and The Treasury Talk. More communication channels were added including Facebook Live, and podcasts through different platforms such as Spotify, Soundcloud and Podbean.
