Aiming to be the social bank

‘Size does not matter” has become a mantra for the Government Savings Bank (GSB), one of Thailand’s largest financial institutions by total assets, in its push to become a fully integrated social bank under the helm of Vitai Ratanakorn.

Although the GSB labelled itself a social bank in the past, its loan portion for grassroots customers gradually declined the past 4-5 years, in contrast to its stated mission.

In fact, the main loan growth for the bank during the period was for state-owned enterprises, which leapfrogged from 80 billion baht to 600 billion.

“We need to clearly define the direction of the bank. We won’t focus on amplifying asset size,…