Siam Commercial Bank’s 114-year history makes it as good as any microcosm of the ups and downs of southeast Asia’s second-biggest economy. And the last year has surely seen more of the latter than the former.
In 2020, the Thai economy shrank at the fastest rate in more than 20 years as both its main growth engines – exports and tourism – sputtered spectacularly. Through it all, Siam Commercial proved to be a financial bulwark for the nation’s wealthy.
Metinee Jongsaliswang, who heads Siam Commercial’s private banking unit, is not exaggerating when she says her team achieved immense success in increasing the client base, assets under management and frontline productivity last year.
The number of private banking clients at Siam Commercial rose 5% year on year in 2020 to 11,000, while AUM rose 2% and revenues 7%. These feats are all the more impressive considering the tough economic climate that Thailand faced over the last 12 months. But the dramatic forces of the last year prodded Siam Commercial to play to its strengths.
The bank did not change tack, but it tweaked its multi-pronged regional growth strategy.
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