ICBC Thai focusing on retail market

Wants retail to account for 50% of total income by 2016.

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Thai) said it was going into retail banking to boost its profitability amid weakening corporate finance margins.

The unit is a subsidiary of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the world’s largest bank by market capitalization and the third-largest by assets.

ICBC (Thai) wants to increase retail’s share to 40-50% of its total income over the next three years from the current 10-15%. Its retail business assets stand at US$1.5 billion, mostly derived from auto loans, compared to its total assets of US$4.4 billion.

Aircraft leasing will be another target for the bank’s leasing firm, ICBC (Thai) Leasing Ltd.

ICBC (Thai) said several retail financial products and services such as credit cards will be introduced at the 2013 Money Expo from May 9-12. It also plans to launch personal loans next year.

ICBC intends to expand its business in Thailand through ICBC (Thai) by offering services to cover all the business segments because of Thailand’s strong economic growth and sound fundamentals.