Mr. Hirotaka Kuroki, Krungsri Head of Global Markets Group, said "The Global Markets Group aims to offer a financial solution that helps customers in every segment expand their businesses through three pillars, including digitalization, ESG (Environment, Social, and Governance), and AEC (ASEAN Economic Community). Under the first pillars of digitalization, Krungsri is ready to assist customers in controlling and managing the risk of foreign exchange fluctuations through the FX Digital Platform, which covers the entire journey including news updates, transaction making, and transaction confirmation. Starting from checking financial market news and major issues concerning the global economy conveniently and quickly through the Krungsri FX on LINE application, which presents text content and VDO clips. Then, customers can access the FX@Krungsri mobile app and Krungsri Biz Online (KBOL). For example, the FX@Krungsri platform allow juristic customers to trade 28 currencies across the globe from 6am to 12 am. Additionally, customers are able to set automatic trading orders at desired rates and confirm the transactions after successful execution instantly through the e-FX confirmation, without the need to visit a branch office to submit the confirmation documents. This will help customers make life simple and save resources and save time."
For the second pillar about ESG, Krungsri recently issued green and blue bond. IFC subscribed to the $400-million green and blue bond, which marks the largest amount of bond related to ESG issued by Thailand's commercial bank. Additionally, in 2019, the Bank achieved the first-ever issurance of Women Entrepreneurs Bonds in the Asia-Pacific region. The latest green and blue bond significantly helps customers mobilizing funds to support social and environmental projects. Krungsri is committed to continuously and expanding customers' ESG businesses in the future.
The final pillar is AEC. The Bank actively supports customers in expanding their businesses across ASEAN. Leveraging MUFG's extensive network and partner banks in neighboring countries, Krungsri provides a comprehensive range of solutions to meet the FX requirements of customers engaging in cross-border transactions and payments. The Bank is committed to developing innovative FX solutions to cater to the needs of customers seeking to expand their businesses into foreign countries.
In addition, the Global Markets Group also presented an overall picture of the foreign exchange and interest rate situation during the second half of 2023 by citing "The direction of US interest rates is the major leading indicator of currency value. In the first half of this year, the baht was moving in the depreciation range in tandem with other currencies in the region while concerns over China's economy weighted on the Chinese yuan. Looking ahead to the second half of the year, although fighting inflation remains the top priority of major central banks across the world, we are of the view that the hawkish stance over the past years will slow down economic activity more significantly in the latter half of the year and the rate hiking cycle is nearing an end. Nevertheless, the slowly declining core inflation is expected to result in interest rate hovering around high levels for a while," Miss Roong Sanguanruang, Krungsri Senior Vice President, Global Markets Planning Division, said.
"While the baht tends to fluctuate with an appreciating trend, we expect it to trade at around 33.75 baht/dollar by the end of 2023, mainly based on our view that the U.S. rate hiking cycle is getting close to an end, China's economy is recovering, and the current account balance will enjoy tailwinds from the tourism sector. Moreover, it is expected that the domestic political scene will become clearer which will attract large inflows of baht-denominated assets depending on the confidence in macroeconomic policy and stability of the new government. As for the geopolitical risk and oscillation of commodity prices, we still need to keep an eye on the developments continuously," Miss Roong concluded.
Source: Bank of Ayudhya
