Krungthai Bank, Thailand’s largest state-owned commercial bank, is expanding its multi-year collaboration with Google Cloud to accelerate open innovation and financial inclusion.
Under this, Infinitas by Krungthai, the bank’s digital innovation arm, will work with Google Cloud to build a scalable co-innovation platform and talent ecosystem that can effectively address the financial and lifestyle needs of all Thais.
The expanded collaboration will build on the success of Infinitas launching mobile applications Pao Tang and Tung Ngern during the pandemic, with Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) playing an important role in getting these applications into the hands of 40 million Thai consumers and 500,000 small business owners.
The company is now using Apigee, Google Cloud’s platform for building and managing application programming interfaces (APIs), to advance open innovation and address the financial and lifestyle needs of its Thai users.
Jakkrit Klinsmith, CEO of Arise by Infinitas, said that with four in every seven Thais now using Pao Tang, Infinitas is going a step further with Google Cloud to transform Pao Tang into an open digital platform that democratises access to financial services and offers third-party lifestyle products for improving quality of life.
By adopting Apigee, Infinitas can easily integrate new digital offerings from its existing partners into the Pao Tang application.
The addition of micro-investing services, for instance, will make it possible for individuals to invest small amounts of money in government bonds, corporate bonds, or other types of financial assets.
Through Apigee’s self-service developer portal, Infinitas can also onboard new partners in hours instead of months.
This enables third-party developers to easily create new services for Pao Tang’s 40 million users by reusing Infinitas’ APIs. With Apigee’s built-in security capabilities, Infinitas can maintain full visibility over the use of its APIs and ensure that API access is only granted to authorised users, thereby preventing API misuse and protecting end-users’ data.
With a centrally-managed API program in place, Infinitas is now embarking on co-innovation efforts with an expanded partner network to introduce gamification elements for improving financial literacy, alternative lending services for individuals who do not qualify for traditional bank loans, and more.
To provide enhanced user support across its applications, Infinitas also plans to use Google Cloud’s conversational artificial intelligence (AI) APIs to transform its contact center operations.
As part of its efforts to attract and retain top talent, Krungthai Bank has adopted Google Workspace to complement its flexible work arrangements. Google Workspace allows the bank’s 22,000 employees to contribute and communicate securely regardless of their location or device preference.
The bank has also reported higher levels of staff productivity and satisfaction, due to AI-powered features in Google Workspace helping its employees to streamline workflows, minimise distractions, and avoid information overload.
“APIs and a vibrant talent ecosystem are crucial components for driving innovation at scale, enabling an organization and its network of partners to develop new experiences for end-users rapidly and cost-effectively,” said April Srivikorn, country manager of Google Cloud in Thailand.
