Krungthai Bank is a leading commercial bank in Thailand, with a mission to empower better life for all Thais by leveraging financial technologies and innovations to develop products that meet the needs of all groups of customers. One of the key instruments in realizing this mission is ‘Pao Tang’ mobile application, which is now Thailand’s no. 1 open digital platform.
In order to speedily and effectively adapt to changes and thrive amid disruption despite being an incumbent, Krungthai Bank adopts the 2-banking-model strategy, which consists of traditional banking and digital organization models. The former is like an aircraft carrier maneuvering the bank’s core banking businesses and its primary goals are to safeguard the core businesses against disruption and minimize the loss of revenue and profit. The latter acts like a speed boat that ventures around to explore new business opportunities and revenue streams, both from creating new business models and forming partnerships. For this purpose, Infinitas by Krungthai was established to be the bank’s speed boat; It focuses on developing an innovative open banking platform that meets customer needs in the new normal and responds to Thai people’s changing behavior. The fruit of this is the Pao Tang mobile application.
Pao Tang is designated to be Thailand’s open digital platform which all Thais, including non-Krungthai customers, can use. It is open for integration with third-party partners in both public and private sectors, so the bank can develop and offer a wide range of products to cover all people’s needs, from banking, saving and investment products to healthcare and lifestyle. It helps close the gap in access to the infrastructure for the digital economy and improve financial inclusion, as well as supporting the country on its path to digital economy to ensure stable and sustainable growth.
The app has contributed greatly to helping the country navigate crises, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. G-wallet, the government’s e-wallet in Pao Tang, is a key mechanism for delivering financial aid to all groups of people, and does so in a more transparent and accountable manner compared to the traditional cash handouts which are prone to corruption. It helps reduce inequality in the society, familiarize the people with mobile payment, and drive the country toward becoming a cashless, digital society. It also served as the registration channel for the Bangkok mass Covid-19 vaccination program to accelerate the vaccination in Bangkok, which is a high-risk area, and used as a channel for free antigen test kit distribution.
Another aspect that Pao Tang has made a huge impact on is the democratization of investment. It started to offer 1-Baht Bonds, government savings bonds with an unprecedentedly low face value of only 1 baht and minimum investment of only 100 baht. This opened up opportunities for the younger generations to access this low-risk option for saving and investment, which had previously been popular among older and wealthier people because of its high face value and minimum investment. The 1-Baht Bond became a big hit; the first batch of 200 million baht was sold out within 99 seconds. Later batches were also met with similar responses.
Besides government savings bonds, corporate bonds have also been digitized. For the first time in Asia, corporate bond primary market subscription and secondary market trading became available fully on a digital platform. This too allows all groups of people to have access to this saving option, meeting the needs of modern investors in a way that is inclusive, equal and sustainable.
Additionally, Gold Wallet in Pao Tang became the first mobile platform in Thailand that offers an end-to-end, all-online, experience of gold trading, making buying and selling gold quick, simple and accessible from anywhere while maintaining a high level of security.
Another feature in Pao Tang is Health Wallet, which gives people easier and better access to universal healthcare. They can check what medical services they are entitled to and make appointments for services such as medical screenings and tests, vaccinations and free Covid-19 antigen test kits.
The latest development of Pao Tang is the digital lottery. Thailand has long been plagued by the problem of overpriced lottery tickets. To solve this, The Government Lottery Office now offers approximately 5% of the total lottery tickets on Pao Tang at the fixed price of 80 baht. This enables retail sellers to have access to buyers from all over the country without paying additional costs, while buyers can easily buy tickets with no surcharge, right on their mobile phones. If they are lucky enough to win the lottery, they can simply claim the prize money within the app if they link Pao Tang to their Krungthai bank account.
In short, Pao Tang has truly become a ‘super app’ that meets the needs of both the people and the government in various aspects, including economic, social and investment. With its 34 million users and counting, Pao Tang will continue to expand its network of partnerships with public and private organizations to develop products and services that better meet the needs of all groups of people and lead to sustainability.
