I did an analysis of how much profit my small town BKK branch made off of my accounts using their average NIM (Net Interest Margin) which is available on line and guess-estimated that they made in the neighborhood of 57,000 baht/year off of my deposits, or over 1MM baht in gross profit (before operational expenses) over the 20+ years I've been with the branch. Google says the median Thai bank account deposit was less than 4,000 baht, and makes me suspect that my combined deposits of close to 3MM baht probably places me in the top 5% of depositors in my rural branch. But on the bank branch level, the employees are little aware of these realities, and are only considering all of the additional paperwork (photocopying and obtaining signatures of passports and visas), authenticating passports, as well as communicating across a language barrier, etc. and concluding that their lives would be so much easier if all they had to do all day long was take care of sweet old grandmothers depositing bags of one baht coins, or making 2,000 baht withdrawals from their accounts. No disrespect intended towards Thai grandmothers or rural town folk who are the salt of the earth. Just pointing out to the banking powers that be sitting back in their ivory towers down in Bangkok, that their mistreatment of foreign customers may soon start to show up in their bottom line.
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