Tisco Bank buying out Standard Chartered's Thailand retail banking

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

This news was in the BKK Post and elsewhere yesterday, but I didn't see it anywhere here:

 

It looks like Tisco Bank is taking over Standard Chartered's retail banking business in Thailand, meaning regular consumer bank accounts and credit cards.

 

Standard Chartered has long had some pretty good savings accounts, and likewise has been generally farang friendly. No clue how Tisco's takeover will affect that.

 

 

Quote

 

Reuters Business News | Thu Dec 22, 2016 | 5:04am GMT

Standard Chartered's Thai unit to transfer retail banking business to TISCO

The Thai unit of Standard Chartered (STAN.L) has agreed to transfer its retail banking business to TISCO Bank PCL and All-Ways Company, as the UK lender's Chief Executive Bill Winters continues with restructuring to boost earnings.

 

Standard Chartered announced in November 2015 that it would take a series of restructuring actions to improve returns, including to divest businesses that lack competitive advantage.

 

Oranuch Aphisaksirikul, Group CEO of TISCO Bank [TISCOB.UL], told a news conference in Bangkok that the firm expects a loan growth of 15 percent in 2017 after transferring Standard Chartered Bank Thai's (SCBT) business.

 

The net asset value of SCBT's retail banking business is about 5,500 million baht ($152.8 million), TISCO Financial Group said in a note to the Stock Exchange of Thailand. The transfer will take place once approved by the Bank of Thailand and shareholders of TISCO, All-Ways and SCBT, it added. TISCO Bank PCl and All-Ways are units of TISCO Financial. 

Oranuch said the transfer was part of a Standard Chartered "global policy", without giving further details.

 

"While our Retail Banking business in Thailand is of high quality, it has insufficient scale and it has become increasingly difficult to achieve the returns that we aspire to," Plakorn Wanglee, CEO, Thailand and Representative Offices at Standard Chartered Bank said. "It is after careful consideration that we have agreed to transfer the Retail Banking business to TISCO."

 

TISCO said it plans to extend its presence in retail banking both in terms of market position and product coverage. "Acquiring SCBT's Retail Banking business is in line with TISCO's strategy to expand customer base and broaden our service scope for retail clients," said Oranuch.

 

(Reporting by Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Wirat Buranakanokthanasan; Editing by Himani Sarkar)

 

 

[Pib]

Or said another way Standard Chartered Thailand wanted to get out of retail banking because it wasn't growing enough/making enough profit in Thailand and they went out and found a buyer (TISCO).

[Pib]

TISCO has a news release on their website also....see below TISCO weblink.

 

https://www.tisco.co.th/en/aboutus/news.html#22_12_16

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

13 hours ago, Pib said:

Or said another way Standard Chartered Thailand wanted to get out of retail banking because it wasn't growing enough/making enough profit in Thailand and they went out and found a buyer (TISCO).

 

Seems like kind of a repeat of HSBC's departure from retail banking in Thailand, and probably for similar reasons and circumstances.

 

If I were a foreign bank, I probably wouldn't want to be in the retail banking business here either. Probably just not worth the headaches, risks and operational limitations, which include those that would prevent the bank from ever reaching any kind of substantial scale of operations. At least, not when operating as a "foreign" bank.

 

 

Edited December 31, 2016 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[hyperdimension]

I have had good experience over the years with Standard Chartered's high-interest eSaver account. Interest rates were similar to rates of term deposit accounts, with the additional advantage that I could transfer money out of the account at any time for withdrawal or to any bank account in Thailand (or even to anywhere else in the world via telegraphic transfer) without forfeiting any accumulated interest.

 

I had even successfully used my eSaver account funds to qualify for a one-year extension of stay.

 

So do you guys or anyone else know what would happen to existing eSaver accounts? e.g. would they have to be closed, and if so, when could that be?

 

What are some good alternatives to Standard Chartered's eSaver account?

 

[hyperdimension]

An eSaver account currently earns 1.5% per year.

A JustOne account, which is a transactional account that comes with a passbook and ATM card, currently earns 2.25% per year for balances up to 100k THB.

 

Krungsri's Mee Tae Dai account seems to be an alternative, but with only a 1.3% interest rate.

 

There doesn't seem to be any better rates around.

 

[fletchsmile]

21 hours ago, hyperdimension said:

An eSaver account currently earns 1.5% per year.

A JustOne account, which is a transactional account that comes with a passbook and ATM card, currently earns 2.25% per year for balances up to 100k THB.

 

Krungsri's Mee Tae Dai account seems to be an alternative, but with only a 1.3% interest rate.

 

There doesn't seem to be any better rates around.

 

Yes, we've enjoyed their eSaver account for years now. As you say useful account and consistently competitive rate.

 

Another one they had was their Marathon Savers account. Tiered rates, limited to 2 withdrawals a month, and I used to use it for my visa extension as it came with a passbook. Tended to be a bit better rate than Mee Tae Dee as well. They didn't offer it in Sep/Oct/Nov of 2016 for the first time in years, so that seems gone for now too. Probably a combination of the marathon event being cancelled due to the passing of HM and ongoing takeover talks at the time.

 

When I asked my RM for another account to use for my Visa extension instead of Marathon Acc, she suggested a Power Save Plus Acc. Rates depend on total deposit amount

0% below 100k - if using for visa extension you need to be above that anyway

1.25% if total deposit 100k - 2,999,999

1.4% if 3mn - 9,999,999

1.5% if 10mn +

it's instant access with a passbook

 

If you have a Thai spouse, ME by TMB has an internet only account. It has been consistently higher than StanChart's eSaver. My wife has one. It's great the way you can fill in the forms and almost open everything online, but finally need to attend in person for KYC. It's not open to foreigners though as the Thai ID number is key in the account opening process. You just put it in and it comes up with your name etc. Nicely done. All you can do with it is transfer online to and from other accounts. But as a basic account for saving it's fine. To get the highest rate you need to maintain the balance at the same level or higher than less month to get a bonus. Currently runs at 1.6% including bonus. Drawbacks you can only transfer out about THB 500k per day + Thais only +need to keep an eye on the bonus rates

 

Cheers

Fletch :)

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

6 hours ago, fletchsmile said:

Yes, we've enjoyed their eSaver account for years now. As you say useful account and consistently competitive rate.

 

It will be interesting to see what happens to Standard Chartered's branches and especially their various accounts and interest rates, once the handover to Tisco is completed.

[fletchsmile]

12 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

It will be interesting to see what happens to Standard Chartered's branches and especially their various accounts and interest rates, once the handover to Tisco is completed.

They've been reducing branches over the last few years and closing those with lower returns/ poor locations. So most of the remaining branches are in reasonable locations and would be kept unless there's obvious duplication, eg same shopping mall or just a few doors down same street.

 

The main other exception and biggest question would be the head office in Sathorn. While the banking facilities themselves are well located for customers, and would make sense to keep, there are lots of other floors above and around these which wouldn't be needed. 

 

On the accounts I think over time and once the takeover is completed and SCBT fully absorbed, they will just stop offering most of the SCBT promotional style accounts and use their own accounts/ branding for consistency. I don't think TISCO have an eSaver style account, so there's a possibility that may be one of the few things TISCO retains and even extends to their existing customers.

 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Just an update on the pending sale of Standard Chartered's Thailand retail banking operations to Tisco Bank.

 

Wondering if any other American account-holders with Standard Chartered have had any conversations with SC lately about what the Tisco takeover will mean?

 

I'm asking because, today, I stopped by the SC head office in Sathorn to check with an account officer I know there about what this whole changeover is going to mean, since thus far, I've received only the barest communication directly from SC.

 

The officer I knew apparently has now departed that branch. But in speaking with a different officer there, that officer informed me that they'd been told that Tisco will NOT be accepting Standard Chartered accounts from American account-holders, apparently because Tisco isn't willing to participate in the U.S. government's FATCA bank disclosure and reporting regulations.

 

So the upshot, the account officer told me today, is that any American customers with Standard Chartered now will not be able to continue with Tisco and will have to close out their SC accounts before the planned changeover occurs, scheduled now for the end of September 2017. The conversation I had with the account officer was in clear English, and I asked the person if they were certain that the Tisco-FATCA issue was as described, and the officer confirmed, that's what they'd been told internally.

 

I tried to call and confirm that later today (Friday) with Standard Chartered's call center, but the line staff there had no clue and the supervisor had gone home by the time of my call.  So they promised a call back to me either Sat or Mon., at which point, I'll be asking about the same issue.

 

FWIW, the SC accounts officer I spoke with said the changeover should be easy for all other SC customers from other countries other than the U.S. The officer said they expected their current branches to basically remain for the most part under Tisco, and account terms and such to remain the same, at least at the outset.

[Pib]

I bet it turns out to be a branch manager that misunderstood things.  Heck, TISCO even has a FATCA forms for account openings....private or corporate accounts.

 

https://www.tiscosec.com/th/download/FATCA_.pdf

 

https://www.tiscoasset.com/DownloadFileServlet?lang=en&product=asset&uploadType=attach&fileName=fatcacorporate_form.pdf

 

 

Edited March 31, 2017 by Pib

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Thanks Pib... That's interesting. As I said, I'll be looking to resolve the issue with SC's Call Center in the next few days. Presumably, they'll either confirm what I was told, or say no, that information is not correct. That's also why I was asking above if any other Americans with SC accounts had had any conversations with SC over what the Tisco changeover was going to mean for their SC accounts.

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Well, notwithstanding Pib's info above, bad news for American accountholders with Standard Chartered Thailand.

 

After checking in response to my inquiry and the info I'd received earlier at SC's main Sathorn branch, a supervisor at Standard Chartered's call center called me back today to confirm that Tisco is NOT planning to accept American accountholders moving over from Standard Chartered because of something to do with the FATCA issue.

 

And, the SC supervisor advised, Standard Chartered is in the process of drafting a letter to their American accountholders advising them of the situation and that they will have to close their accounts with Standard Chartered. The supervisor said the letter probably would be going out sometime after the Song Kran holiday.

 

I asked if SC was going to be offering any other options to their American accountholders other than simply closing their SC accounts. And the supervisor said no options with Tisco, but that SC might be advising their American customers of available other Thai banks willing to take on new American accountholders.

 

So, that's now been confirmed by two different sources: one an accounts officer at their head Sathorn branch, and now a customer service supervisor at SC Thai's main call center.

 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

As expected and predicted above, I got a registered letter dated May 15 in the mail today from Standard Chartered Thailand with the subject line reading: "Discontinuation of your personal accounts", and after several introductory paragraphs, it finally gets to the heart of the matter.

 

"We regret to inform you that the Bank will, on and from 1 July 2017, no longer accept any deposit into your foreign currency deposit account(s) and that all of your deposit account(s) shown above [being my savings account with them] need to be closed."

 

The letter is a form letter, it alludes to foreign currency deposit accounts even though I don't have one with Standard Chartered, it says nothing about the reason for having to close my account with them, and it doesn't make any reference to my status as an American. But in tiny letters up above the subject line, it does have a line like a filename reference that reads: "TOPAZ_FATCA & FCY", which I assume refers to FATCA status and foreign currency accounts -- which presumably are the categories of retail accounts that TISCO doesn't plan to inherit from Standard Chartered.

 

The letter goes on to say that I need to close my account by Aug. 31, 2017. And if I don't, the bank will close the account itself on Sept. 1, 2017, and then I'll have to go to the head office to collect the funds in my account.

 

The letter then has a final section titled "For Corporate & Institutional Banking and Commercial Banking" where the letter says Standard Chartered will continue to service those sectors.

[fletchsmile]

Spoke to a contact at Stan Chart for you John, as we're in the process of a mortgage application with them at the moment. The person I spoke to is very reliable. Also overseas educated Thai, so no language barrier either.

 

She confirmed that US clients wouldn't be taken on by Tisco. It does indeed relate to FATCA status, and as the only nationals that FATCA currently applies to are in this context are US citizens.

 

Stan Chart Head Office branch at Sathorn next to Chong Nonsri will also eventually close. As suspected, they didn't want all the floor space. Service will be transferred a few hundred yards down the road to Tisco's Head Office 

 

Cheers

Fletch :)

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Thanks for inquiring, Fletch!

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

I had reason to stop by Standard Chartered's Sathorn HQ branch today, just to check on an update for how things were going with the transition to Tisco.

 

As mentioned earlier in this thread, Tisco is NOT taking the transfer of accounts from American account holders at Standard Chartered, meaning Americans will have to close their SC Thai accounts and transfer the funds elsewhere.

 

The accounts officer I spoke with at SC Sathorn today confirmed that SC online banking services and ATM machines will cease operating after this Aug. 31 (10 days from now). Meaning if you're an American and haven't moved your SC funds out by then, you'll have to go to their Sathorn office in person to obtain your account funds.

 

The accounts office I spoke with also said the SC Sathorn HQ branch is only due to remain open an additional month through Sept. 29, and after that, anyone having any remaining business with them will have to do it thru what she called their "Sky Branch" upstairs in the adjoining building there that houses an Au Bon Pain shop on the ground floor.

 

[regedit]

19 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

...SC online banking services and ATM machines will cease operating after this Aug. 31 (10 days from now).

 

 

Is that for all customers ? I thought online banking was available until 29 Sept ?

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

1 minute ago, regedit said:

 

Is that for all customers ? I thought online banking was available until 29 Sept ?

That's what the accounts officer that I spoke with told me after she went away to ck re my questions and then returned.

 

She said the Sept date was the closure date for their Sathorn branch, but the ATMs and online banking would cease end of Aug.

 

But with Thai bank staff, it's always an open question of whether they're providing correct info. Perhaps a call to their Call Center to verify or correct.

 

[regedit]

Looks like the officer isn't up to speed - just saw the notice on the log-in screen --- it's 27 Sept at 9pm 

[fletchsmile]

We went in the other week to sign all the various documents as requested in the letters we got. We've a lot of accounts with SCBT across the family and including mutual funds. It took about 3 hours for them to print off the forms for all 4 family members to sign, take photocopies, issue passbooks, ATMs etc LOL  

 

Although we have all the Tisco stuff now (except cheque books - you pick a branch to pick them up at later), all this stuff generally can't be used until end Sep/ early Oct  

 

The biggest shock was to find out Tisco doesn't have internet banking  I thought Stan Chart had been slow to implement internet banking in Thailand around 2007 if I recall but it was like time warping back a decade or so.

 

Tisco does have mobile banking but accounts aren't automatically added and you will be charged if you transfer between your accounts without manually adding them first as the system will recognise them as 3rd party accounts. 

 

Other features include not being able to use your ATM cards overseas and not being able to make outward overseas transfers

 

As I understand it your credit cards remain StanChart until expiry.

 

Not quite sure exactly how our Mortgage One account will work as mortgages are new to Tisco.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

On 8/22/2017 at 3:49 PM, regedit said:

Looks like the officer isn't up to speed - just saw the notice on the log-in screen --- it's 27 Sept at 9pm 

 

Thanks for updating on that.

 

It's really sad how generally poor the level of knowledge and competency is among Thai bank staff.  The SC officer who provided the earlier info to me was an accounts officer, not a teller, and actually went off after I asked my questions to check on the answer, before returning with the info she provided me.

 

They're a month+ away from closing. You'd think they'd at least have the key basics down by this point in the process.

 

Edited August 23, 2017 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

4 hours ago, fletchsmile said:

The biggest shock was to find out Tisco doesn't have internet banking  I thought Stan Chart had been slow to implement internet banking in Thailand around 2007 if I recall but it was like time warping back a decade or so.

 

Tisco does have mobile banking but accounts aren't automatically added and you will be charged if you transfer between your accounts without manually adding them first as the system will recognise them as 3rd party accounts. 

 

Other features include not being able to use your ATM cards overseas and not being able to make outward overseas transfers

 

Kind of makes me feel not so bad about NOT being able to convert my SC accounts into Tisco accounts. With that kind of business profile, they're not a Thai bank I'd be especially interested in having any business with.

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

24 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

Thanks for updating on that.

 

It's really sad how generally poor the level of knowledge and competency is among Thai bank staff.  The SC officer who provided the earlier info to me was an accounts officer, not a teller, and actually went off after I asked my questions to check on the answer, before returning with the info she provided me.

 

They're a month+ away from closing. You'd think they'd at least have the key basics down by this point in the process.

 

 

They really are a clown show...  After seeing your post here, I noticed the screen cap didn't mention about their ATM network.

 

So, just now, I called the SC call center and asked an EN speaking rep about both the online banking and ATM shuttering.

 

The guy I was speaking with at the Call Center first answered that their online banking was going to end on Sept. 28th!  And when I then mentioned about having seen a reference to Sept. 27th on their website, he went away, and came back a few moments later to say he had been wrong, and yes, the end of online banking was going to be the night of the 27th.

 

So then I asked same question about their ATM network. He said their ATMs would cease to operate at 2 pm on Friday, Sept. 29. I asked was he sure, and he said yes, sure. I noted, why the different dates for online banking and ATMs, and he gave some explanation about that. Then finally, I asked, if he was wrong originally about online banking how could I be sure he was right about his ATMs answer. So at that point, he said he'd go and check again, and came back a few minutes later to confirm that their ATMs would cease to operate as of 2 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 29.

 

 

Edited August 23, 2017 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[fletchsmile]

SCBT now has the following webiste page with important information on the retail banking transfer

www.sc.com/th/en/important-information/retail-banking-business-transfer/

There are several notices on the page with .pdf links. 2 of the most important are:
 

Quote

Important notice 21 August 2017
Subject: Announcement of SCBT retail banking branch last operating day
Standard Chartered Bank (Thai) Public Company Limited
We are pleased to confirm that the transfer of retail banking business of Standard Chartered Bank (Thai) PLC
to TISCO Bank PLC and All-Ways Co., Ltd. is scheduled to be completed on 1 October 2017.
ATM services will be permanently stopped from 29th September 2017 at 2:00 p.m. for SCBT ATM/CDM
machines and 5:00 p.m. for other bank ATM/CDM machines (ATM/CDM Pool).
In case you have not contacted SCBT branch to sign the consent form for transfer of deposit, investment
services, and some loan accounts (if any), we would like to urge you to do so no later than 2:00 p.m. on 29
September 2017, otherwise your account(s) and SCBT ATM/Debit card (if any) will not be able to be used
after the Transfer to TISCO is completed.
Thank you for banking with Standard Chartered Bank (Thai) and we are grateful for the trust you have given
us over the years.
For more information, please call 1595

 

 

Quote

 

Subject: Discontinuation of Foreign Exchange and Remittance Services, Outward Telegraphic Transfers
(OTT) and Inward Telegraphic Transfers (ITT) and Foreign Draft Collection and Issuing
Retail Banking Business only
According to Bank’s announcement on 22 December 2016 regarding Retail Banking Business transfer to
TISCO Bank. Please kindly be informed that SCBT will stop Foreign Exchange and Remittance Services, both
Outward Telegraphic Transfers (OTT) and Inward Telegraphic Transfers (ITT) and Foreign Draft Collection and
Issuing since August 31st
, 2017 onwards. We would like to inform you in advance for your further
preparation and sorry for any inconvenience caused. For more info, please call 1595.

 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

On 8/23/2017 at 7:17 PM, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

It's really sad how generally poor the level of knowledge and competency is among Thai bank staff.  The SC officer who provided the earlier info to me was an accounts officer, not a teller, and actually went off after I asked my questions to check on the answer, before returning with the info she provided me.

 

They're a month+ away from closing. You'd think they'd at least have the key basics down by this point in the process.

 

 

More bull-sh** from Standard Chartered today, really disappointing and infuriating. Yes, supposedly customers will continue to have access to their online banking thru the evening of Sept. 27.

 

So today, I logged into my SC account just to make sure everything was set up properly for the online transfer of SC funds I was planning to make later this week to an external bank account as part of closing out my SC account. An external bank account that had already long been set up and used for many past transfers in SC online banking.

 

And to my surprise and dismay, the entire external accounts list of linked bank accounts under my Transfers section had disappeared and when I tried to access that activity, I got an error message saying I didn't have an authorized source account.

 

Got on the phone to SC's Call Center, and after literally about a half hour wait on hold from 5 to 5:30 pm, I finally got an agent who ended up telling me that, for who knows what reason, the bank had started early "locking" customers accounts starting last Saturday, meaning that I could no longer make online transfers out of my account. Of course, no notice from the bank, no email, no SMS, not even any mention when I was in the main branch last week.

 

So how am I supposed to close out my SC account, I asked the rep, when the bank has suddenly unilaterally blocked my making any external account transfers? No real answer to that, of course, and no explanation of why they started doing it now with absolutely no notice to their customers.  So tomorrow, the CSR promised, she will call me back with an answer as to whether the bank can temporarily unlock my account to allow an online transfer.

 

All I can say is, if you're an American with a SC account that cannot be transferred to Tisco and you were planning to make an online transfer to remove the funds from your SC account, better check your SC online banking now and see if the external transfers function has been disabled or not.

 

   

 

 

[regedit]

Overseas transfers were due to stop 30 Aug.

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Just to clarify, the online transfer out of Standard Chartered that I was attempting to do above was a DOMESTIC transfer to another bank inside Thailand -- not an out of country one.

 

It took me a couple of hours this past Monday at the Sathorn head branch, and after getting saddled initially with a know-nothing accounts officer, requesting and getting to talk with a manager there that they finally unlocked my account to allow for ONE account closing external transfer to another Thai bank.  And when I got home, I confirmed that my previously linked other Thai bank accounts in my Standard Chartered online banking setup had been restored and were available to use again for external transfers.

 

Originally, the SC manager I was speaking with kept suggesting and pushing me to accept a cashier's check for the balance of my account, and even offered to have a bank staff walk the cashier's check with me to another nearby bank of my choosing where it could be deposited. But I was firm and insistent on refusing the cashier's check, and demanded that I be able to do a online transfer, which they finally relented to.

 

Along the way, I pointed out repeatedly that they had told their customers that online banking would continue to be available until toward the end of September, and that they NEVER said anything about locking external bank transfers to other Thai banks well ahead of that.

 

As best as I could tell from their vague explanations, it sounded like the locking of domestic external transfers out of Standard Chartered was something they started doing to their American customers who were/are not going to be eligible to transfer their accounts to Tisco. Though why they started this past week in late August locking domestic external transfers at all, I never did get any clear, understandable explanation.

 

I never had any big problems with SC during the years I had my account with them. But the closing out process with the transfer to Tisco (except for Americans) has been a mess.  At this point, I'm glad to be rid of them.

 

 

[fletchsmile]

Our accounts are still operating fine including internet banking. We had a later dated 24 August with all the cut off dates for key products, which are all broadly towards end of September/ early October.

 

I can only assume John's experience is as he says due to him being American and Tisco is not taking on American clients. There's no mention in the correspondence we've received of any additional/ different cut-off dates for Americans. But then again they may already have segregated the correspondence

 

One other thing to watch I became aware of in the last letter is for people with Mortgage One accounts. In my view this is the best mortgage product in Thailand. However, if you want to continue to use the facility where you can withdraw further amounts and use the available credit line where you've parked extra cash, then you need to go into your branch and sign some more forms. If not you won't be able to use the credit line for additional withdrawals until you do. Last time we went in to sign everything they didn't know what to do about this account so there was nothing for us to sign. Mortgages are new to Tisco. Looks like they've worked it out now, but another visit is needed.

 

Not looking forward to losing internet banking. It's also great shifting money around online to/from your Mortgage One account to save interest. Will be a real pain having to go into a branch each time, unless they come up with something on their mobile banking

 

 

[hyperdimension]

Will Tisco offer the same 2.25% interest rate of Standard Chartered JustOne accounts?