The duty of the compass is to accelerate the recovery of ROE and lead Siam Commercial Bank towards digital with Manop Saengiambutr.

Manop Saengiambutr
Senior Deputy General Manager
Chief Executive Officer Finance Group
Commercial Bank of Thailand

 The duty of the compass is to accelerate the recovery of ROE.
Leading Siam Commercial Bank towards digital

On January 1, 2564 Manop Saengiambutr was appointed to hold the positionD Senior Deputy General Manager Chief Executive Officer Finance GroupGo back to the previous year. The man took the position. Deputy General Manager Chief Executive Officer The Finance Group in 2663 is considered a rising executive of Siam Commercial Bank.

Previously, Manop was responsible for China Business executives since 2557 and has over 20 years of experience in finance, banking and foreign investment. Especially the Chinese market It is considered a jump from a line of work where you used to work at the front line to work at the back of the house that takes care of the organization's finances.

Changing the image of backyard work
It plays a role as a front end.

“In my working life, I always try to push myself to do things that have never been done before. I usually choose to step out of my comfort zone every 5-6 years in order to push myself to increase my potential. Because I believe that we have to work a little beyond our means in order to develop ourselves further.”

Manop joined Siam Commercial Bank in 2555 as Assistant General Manager. International Banking Business, large business group He previously held the position of Head of China A-Share Research at Shanghai and Hong Kong Securities CLSA. He was the initiator of founding and managing a team analyzing investments in the Chinese stock market. Including having previously served as a treasury academic. at the Office of the State Enterprise Policy Committee Ministry of Finance In addition, he was a part-time lecturer at Chulalongkorn University. and at Fudan University, Shanghai

Manop holds a bachelor's degree in finance and accounting. Accounting Information Branch from the Faculty of Commerce and Accountancy Chulalongkorn University and a master's degree in MBA in Finance from Carnegie Mellon University, USA with a Thai government scholarship. and is a certified public accountant in Thailand and also received the Rising Star Thai Government Scholarship Award. Year 2561 Financial Management branch

“SCB is an organization that allows employees to rotate duties all the time to keep them alert because if they work in the same spot over and over, employees will not be alert. Changing careers gives a new perspective and allows you to see more things. When the organization wants to change and the individual likes to change as well, it is a matching demand.”

Manop also said that changing careers requires skills that are common and related. Having made the jump from international business to finance as CFO, he has a combination of skills that make him a success: his knowledge and understanding of regional finance. Because I originally had to work with Chinese clients, I had to understand China's money market as well. Those are the skills that helped his transition to work in finance smoothly.

“With China's economy rising to number two in the world and possibly number one in the world faster than expected, Therefore, China's economy will have direct or indirect effects on Thailand. Businesses in Thailand therefore need to understand China's money market. But of course, in a new role, we must always add more knowledge.”

Siam Commercial Bank's financial team already has excellent knowledge and capabilities. Some things must be learned from these teams. But in the role of CFO, for him, finance is not only a compass but must also help drive the organization in the direction of its goals. The finance line of business is not just a support job but must be done as front-of-house work like other business lines.

“The challenge is to change the support line to function as front-of-house work. First of all, people on the team must be eager to learn and dare to try right and wrong. Change the perspective that the job of an accountant is not to block other business lines, but to find ways to help solve problems. Accountants must perform accounting duties in the same way, but must also make themselves financial planners and financial advisors to other business lines in the organization.”

While the investor relations department Must be not just a financial analyst but also a marketer who can make investors and analysts clearly see the direction the bank is headed in so that the analysts can reflect the correct price to investors. However, the strength is that the team has a lot of talent. From now on, they will have to change to move forward together. It is a big problem to be a compass and work as if you are the front of the house.

as a navigation compass
The goal is ROE.

The man also said that Under the Covid-19 epidemic crisis The banking sector, including Siam Commercial Bank, must maintain a strong balance sheet to support its customers. The bank will create growth at a low risk level first. Even though the bank's capital position is very strong, the bank has a high reserve to risk assets ratio of 18%, but it must manage the quality of its loans to an acceptable level. This is considered to have been achieved at a satisfactory level. Previously, there were 39% of all debtors requesting to enter assistance measures with the bank, but they have already left the assistance measures. Until now, only 18% of customers are remaining in assistance measures, all of which are considered to be at risk. Satisfactory

However, the CFO's job has a wide role. Both accounting matters financial management Investor Relations, Asset and Liability Management Committee (ALCO), which is the heart of banking work because it must manage its own funding sources to be consistent between assets and liabilities. Moreover, there is another additional role which is investment. Since the banking business currently has excess liquidity, the CFO's duty must be to be able to find investment opportunities from the increased liquidity within acceptable risk.

“The challenge in the CFO role is probably assuming the position during Covid-19, but I think the CFO's duty is to act as the organization's compass. We are not the captain ourselves, but rather the compass for the captain to guide the direction towards the goal of bringing the organization's value back to where it should be.”

มาณพเล่าว่า เป้าหมายของธนาคารคือทำให้มูลค่าขององค์กรอยู่ในระดับที่ควรจะเป็นคือการเพิ่มอัตราผลตอบแทนผู้ถือหุ้น (ROE)ให้กลับไปสู่ช่วงที่ดีที่สุดของธนาคารหากย้อนไปช่วงปี 2553-2562 ธนาคารไทยพาณิชย์เคยมี ROEเฉลี่ยที่ 16% และเคยทำได้ดีถึง 20% จนกระทั่งผลประกอบการมาถูกกระทบโดย Covid-19 ทำให้ ROE ลดลงมาเหลือ 6-7% ในปี 2563 ที่ผ่านมา

However, when the situation of Covid-19 Once things start to unravel, it is the bank's goal to bring the organization's value back to ROE. At the same level, in the past, when the bank's ROE was the best, the value of SCB shares used to be 2 times the Book Value, but now the Book Value is 1 time.

“From a rough calculation, If the crisis passes and the bank continues to do business as usual, reserves that were previously as high as 47,000 million baht or 2.14% of loans, including the bank's highest level in 2563, will gradually decrease to normal reserve levels in 2 years. Over the next year, this will bring banks' ROE back to 10%. Even though banks' ROE has improved after the crisis, it still isn't enough. Because we must continue to find ways to add value to the organization.”

Manop said that the duty of the CFO must therefore be a compass for the organization in which direction it should go. The bank must do more than it has done before. For this reason, it is the origin of the bank that is trying to move forward fully with digital issues, including setting up SCB10X to create a new digital ecosystem (Digital Ecosystem) as well as creating RobinHood, a food delivery platform, and many other platforms, hoping to Create a large Digital Ecosystem to support the Bank's goals towards Digital Banking in the future.

Robinhood is a model for doing new things for banks because the team works like a startup and is doing reasonably well. Robinhood was established in October 2563 and currently has 12,000 orders per day. It is considered a good start and has grown quite a bit. In the next 3-5 years, they will use behavioral data from Robinhood to build on the bank's digital ecosystem. Robinhood may not be the final answer to the goal of becoming a digital bank, but it will. It's a helper to fill.

Manop said that if the bank's efforts are successful this time, there is a chance that SCB's ROE will return to its previous level with increased income from the new loan approval method that uses behavioral data, not Just financial information obtained from DigitalEcosystem And relying on data analysis leads to accurate loan approval. Answer customer needs directly

The Digital Ecosystem allows the bank to capture customer groups that were never captured before. In the past, most commercial banks in Thailand had approximately 10 million customers from a population of over 60 million because of traditional business practices. With traditional information, they will approve loans only from the information they have, so there is only one group of customers. If you use the Digital Ecosystem, you will gain a new customer base of the new generation.

“In 2563, Siam Commercial Bank's digital customer base increased 30% to 13.7 million people from the original 12 million people. The digital customer base of over 13 million people is very valuable if it is a new business. But for a large organization like a bank, it may appear that other, larger businesses are diluting it. The big problem is how to make the hidden growth expand enough to be clearly seen.”

However, whatever products and services the bank can push into digital channels, we will try to push them all. Most of which are mainly related to individual customers, with some SME groups. But it will focus on loans, insurance, and investments offered through digital channels which, although doing well, still have a small proportion. The digital channel must have a significant proportion in order to start to see a clear impact on the overall picture of the bank.

The man said that In addition to the digital ecosystem that the bank has created, it has gained a new customer base but has also helped reduce costs. In 2563, the bank's cost to income dropped to 44% from the previous level of 50. %, which in 2564 will be the year when we start to see results from the bank's serious move towards digital that will clearly contribute to the bank's cost trend. Therefore, continuing to build a digital ecosystem will bring cost to income. of banks can be further reduced. Within the next 3-5 years, we may see cost to income drop below 40%.

“Moving towards digital banking in the future, the bank will be able to increase income from acquiring new customer bases. Helps earn better interest income from unsecured loans under new approvals. Including offering more accurate services at a lower cost There is a chance that ROE can return to its previous average of 15-16% within 3-5 years.”

At the same time, when the crisis can be overcome in the future, the bank will focus on businesses that generate better returns, with the goal of digital banking being the main problem. But we still haven't given up the opportunity to look for growth from outside. External growth depends on many factors and is highly uncertain. If a good opportunity arises, it is considered one point that will help increase the bank's returns to accelerate.

“Growing by acquiring businesses, banks will look at places that already have a footprint. When acquiring businesses from outside, the difficult thing is that when you go in and buy them, they must be things that meet the business needs and add value to the organization. and must be a business that strengthens the organization But it must be done with extreme caution.”

As for the bank's foreign strategy, it would like to choose to be strong in its own market before expanding elsewhere. Manop emphasizes that if going abroad, it must be clear that it can compete. Focusing on the CLMV countries that have high opportunities and mainly overlooking the Chinese market, our international goal is not to go to markets that are difficult to compete and lack familiarity because we see that the banking business that goes abroad will grow by Lack of expertise may reduce the ROE of domestic businesses.

Follow the CEO Talk column in the Finance and Banking Journal. April 2564 issue, issue 468, on leading newsstands nationwide and in digital format: https://goo.gl/U6OnIi