INNOVATION VISIONARY

Tan Choon Hin, president and chief executive of UOB Thailand, was honoured with the “2023 CEO of the Year Award for Innovative Financial Visionary” by the Bangkok Post for his exceptional leadership and unwavering dedication to the bank’s growth and success through innovation development.

Mr Tan has been the top executive at UOB Thailand since 2016 and continues to grow the business following the pandemic.

From 2017-22, the bank recorded average net profit growth of 10% compared with 1% for the industry overall.

The strong earnings are attributed to organic growth rather than inorganic growth, underscoring the strength and resilience of the core franchise in Thailand, he said.

UOB Thailand, a regional network of Singapore-based UOB, has operated in the Thai market since 1999 through the acquisition of UOB Radanasin Bank Plc.

Bank of Asia and UOB Radanasin successfully integrated to be UOB Thailand on 28 November 2005, and completed the acquisition of Citibank’s retail business in 2022 despite the challenges of the pandemic.

UOB Thailand is the second-largest foreign bank and among the top three credit card issuers in the Thai market.

Apart from financial achievements, UOB Thailand also focuses on providing innovative financial solutions.

The bank launched innovation accelerator FinLab in 2018 to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) embark on a digital transformation journey, then debuted digital banking service UOB TMRW in 2019.

“Prior to the launch of UOB TMRW, we saw a wave of virtual banks coming to the region and the trend could change the banking business landscape forever. Given the digital disruption, UOB decided to disrupt ourselves by launching TMRW digital banking app in Thailand as the first market,” Mr Tan said.

The bank partners with financial technology firms such as Personetics and Meniga by incorporating user interface design, actionable insights and money management gaming, enabling the bank to become a pioneer in embedding these fintech solutions.

As a result, TMRW provides more convenience to digital banking customers who are millennials or the mobile-only generation.

With distinctive features and functions, TMRW is the first mobile-only bank in Thailand that enables customers to open a bank account and to authenticate their identities without having to visit a branch.

In addition, the bank offered an authentication service before the National Digital ID was implemented.

Through financial innovation development, UOB Thailand has adopted chatbots to replace voice calls, answering half of all inquiries, with the remainder seamlessly handled by live chat teams.

The bank has continued to launch a series of groundbreaking sustainability solutions, starting with U-Solar, followed by U-Energy and U-Drive.

UOB Thailand adopted digital technology to help SMEs to grow and sustain their business over the long term. The bank introduced the Smart Business Transformation Program in 2022, which helps SMEs to innovate and transform to a digitally-powered business.

Since 2018, the bank has worked with over 4,000 SMEs, with more than 600 undergoing a three-month digitalisation programme, with the aim to adjust to digital business operations during the pandemic.

This digitalisation has strengthened local SMEs operations, improving efficiency, reducing operating costs and enabled them to expand to overseas markets.

Following the pandemic, the bank is focused on business sustainability through the Sustainability Innovation Program which aligns with its commitment to achieve net-zero emissions and make Thailand greener, he said.