Kasikornbank’s K PLUS records more than 19 million users or 17% growth in 2022

The Asia Pacific (APAC) region witnessed rapid technological transition over the past years and especially during the COVID-19 pandemic thanks to the region’s highly-adaptable digital consumer.

Customers have shown preference for mobile devices over personal computers, highlighting a mobile-first digital ecosystem throughout APAC. The mobile banking revolution that is reshaping the financial services industry has introduced digital-native competitors to the market, while banks and financial institutions have introduced initiatives to improve customer service, security and mobile banking services.

Customers are demanding that practically every service be offered digitally, and in most cases, via a smartphone app. This trend is partially due to a pandemic that reduced branch services. Every bank is transitioning to digital.

For the past few years, markets with sizable unbanked populations have jumped straight into mobile banking. The best mobile applications include a wide range of services to attract users while delivering a secure and seamless user experience.

Key trends and developments ahead

Great client experience and convenience are the two key factors in the success of mobile banking globally. Conventional banks are embracing innovation more quickly than ever to enhance customer service and shift away from old infrastructure and towards flexible, cloud-based systems.

Banks are updating their retail platforms to cut expenses and boost sales and productivity. Along with bankers, developers, behavioural scientists and data scientists are creating appealing customer-app experiences that are key competitive differentiators. Services, microservices, platforms, and collaboration with fintechs are also becoming important amid intense competition in the sector.

More apps, services, and features also equate to more data. Gathered data is used for the hyper-personalisation of service and marketing solutions. As real-time transaction analysis is necessary to make sense of this data, many banks are turning to artificial intelligence and machine learning and migrating their analytical workloads to the cloud.

Key findings derived from the scorecard

Kasikornbank’s K PLUS is the Best Mobile Banking service for this year’s Excellence Awards for the second year in a row.

K PLUS has been a leader in Thailand’s mobile banking market for years, reaching 20 million users. Adoption and growth in K PLUS users demonstrate the effectiveness of the platform. The number of end users has grown by 17% from 17.3 million in 2021 to 19.7 million in 2022.

The number of financial transactions has grown by 41% in comparison to 2021, exceeding 680 million in November 2022, making K PLUS the best in the digital innovation and mobile users category.

Key initiatives of K PLUS include enhanced customer experience, customer engagement, loyalty programs and developing new products and features. The bank also leverages the loyalty program, K Point, to entice more users.  

Click here to see the full Mobile Banking Sevices in Asia Pacific 2023