Masaaki Suzuki shares his vision and goals for Krungsri JPC/MNC Banking's growth

The bank’s Japanese corporate clients in Thailand are in for a stronger set of banking products and services.

Masaaki Suzuki has been the head of Bank of Ayudhya (Krungsri) Japanese Corporation and Multinational Corporations (JPC/MNC) Banking since its establishment in 2015, when Krungsri integrated with Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd, Bangkok branch.

Asian Banking & Finance caught up with Masaaki to talk about the bank’s plans in reinforcing its products and services, developing new collaborations, and getting through the challenges of catering to Japanese corporate clients in Thailand.

How has the establishment of JPC/MNC benefitted Krungsri’s corporate clients?
Being a member of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), Japan’s largest and one of the world’s top five financial groups, Krungsri is in a unique position to leverage synergy with MUFG’s global capability and Krungsri’s local and regional function to support our corporate clients.

In addition, JPC/MNC banking has a large pool of Japanese corporate customers with nearly 75% of market penetration. Through collaboration with other segments in Krungsri, we are generating various business opportunities for clients through business matchings. In 2017, we brought together Japanese and Thai corporates and completed nearly 600 business matching deals for almost 350 participating companies from Thailand, Japan, and the CLMV countries.

What challenges have you encountered in catering to your Japanese corporate clients in Thailand?
Upon integration with Krungsri, we were able to provide full banking products and services to JPC/MNC corporate clients. Besides retail products such as payroll and corporate credit cards, many new business potentials are generated through collaboration with Thai corporates.

It was our challenge to exercise JPC/MNC relationship and drive our Japanese clients’ business to be recognised broader amongst Thai corporates, and ultimately bring about a win-win accomplishment for both. Our successful arrangement of various Japanese-Thai jointed projects and the growing number of participants attending business matching fair, the biggest business matching event of MUFG held every year in Bangkok, reassure that we are on the right path and we would work harder to further enhance our capability to support Japanese corporate clients’ business in Thailand.

What are the products and services that you are able to offer your client base, but you were not offering before?
Utilising local banking capability of Krungsri, we have broadened our products and services, enabling us to provide full banking services to JPC/MNC clients. Through
collaboration with Krungsri’s retail banking, we are now providing services to over 90,000 payroll accounts for employees of major Japanese and multinational corporates and also offering other retail/consumer products and services to these customers such as credit card and mortgage loan. In addition, we also utilise the strength of Krungsri’s auto-finance business to enhance our support to customers in automotive manufacturing business throughout their business chain, from suppliers to dealers, and end users.

What is your major point of difference to other corporate banks in Thailand?
We are the one and only global bank with local capability in Thailand. With full local banking services and products of Krungsri, we are able to provide Japanese clients with unique end-to-end financial solutions which other mega Japanese banks in Thailand could not provide locally.

Moreover, supported by superior global network and expertise of MUFG, together with a close relationship between the parent companies and MUFG group, Krungsri has a competitive edge over other Thai banks. One of our big achievements through the collaboration was that we provided the first ever and the biggest Asset Backed Securitisation program for a Japanese leasing company worth $513m in 2016.

What can clients look forward to in the coming years? Any specific plans and collaborations?
Our bank is full steam ahead to upgrade our products and services to another level. Krungsri and MUFG recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the Board of Investment (BOI) of Thailand to promote overseas investment and boost up growth of Thai operators wishing to invest abroad and Japanese companies planning to invest in Thailand.

In addition, Krungsri is committed to reinforce our support to Japanese business in EEC area. We set up “EEC Area Promoters” to particularly strengthen the business promotion structure at the EEC area in Chachoengsao, Chonburi, and Rayong. This function will be responsible for being a regional axis across the division to facilitate customers in the industrial estates.

Not only business in Thailand, we also seek to strengthen our CLMV business promotion to support our clients’ regional business expansion through Krungsri and MUFG Network. Driving by our aspiration to enhance our number one position in Japanese corporate market and be the most preferred bank for MNC’s customers, we would continuously improve customer experiences and develop the best financial solution for our clients through maximising Krungsri and MUFG capability.