With the merger between TMB and Thanachart expected to complete by the end of January 2019, the impact on Thailand’s retail banking market will be concentrated.
While it will create a national champion and Thailand’s sixth-largest bank by overall assets, the main gains in market share will be concentrated in the retail deposit and credit card markets.
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The TMB and Thanachart merger will see gains in market share for the combined entity across all of the main retail banking lines of business, as both banks maintain a full product suite.
However, with a combined market share of 9.3% in retail deposits at the end of 2017 it will move just behind Krungsri Bank to become one of only six players with truly significant market share (as per GlobalData’s Retail Banking Analytics dashboard). Likewise, in credit cards the bank will vault ahead of established players such as Citibank, AEON, and Krungthai to become the third-largest issuer in the market.
With a strong position on both the asset-gathering and lending sides of the market, the merger will create a strong competitor for the local market.
Moreover, as this merger was at least partly prompted by the increased integration of the ASEAN banking market under the direction of the ASEAN Banking Integration Framework, it is expected that the new entity will become more regionally focused. Banks around the region should expect the bank to quickly seek to compete more outside of Thailand.
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By GlobalDataAnd this move may just be the start. Further consolidation among ASEAN banks is expected over the next 12 months, as more and more banks merge to create scale across the rapidly integrating region.
