Government Savings Bank Honored with the Enterprise Asia Linchpin of Asia Award 2023 for Pioneering Social Impact Beyond Banking Norms
On April 1st, 1913, King Rama VI gave a royal capital of THB 100,000 to fund the establishment of the Government Savings Bank (GSB) with the objective of providing people a safe place to keep their properties and have reasonable returns. Until today, GSB has evolved its financial business services to stay up-to-date and cater to its customers until well into its 111th year.
At present, GSB is a state financial institution with a Vision to be a Social Bank. Its Missions include helping low-income and grassroots people, assisting retail and SME entrepreneurs by providing access to funds with fair interest rates, reducing inequality and financial gaps, supporting career and income creation, and strengthening the grassroots economy and communities. GSB also aims to be the main mechanism to drive the government’s policy projects together with promotional savings and financial discipline.
The Vision of a Social Bank is “Making POSITIVE Impact on Society”, GSB operates its business by creating two concurrent Missions which are to provide sustainability for stakeholders and to respond to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with a Triple Bottom Line (People, Profit, & Planet). This Triple Bottom Line is the goals to create fair finance for social and community foundations (People), to create financial strengthening (Profit), and to increase resource optimization and environment prevention (Planet).
Based on the challenges from current business operations, GSB has created a new business model with its business partner (Non-Bank) to offer other businesses such as Car and Motorcycle Title Loan, Land for Loans, and Digital Lending to serve its social goal – to provide financial inclusion for those who do not have a financial history or have low credit.
Under the changing social contexts of the modern age, GSB is focusing on its human resources management capacity by adjusting the organizational structure and operation procedure to serve its Social Mission which is to responsibly and ethically serve its customers and society at large. At the same time, GSB pays attention to its internal communication so that GSB officers have a mutual understanding of the bank’s direction and its core values (the GSB Way) to support knowledge and develop future skills, as operations have regular performance-based evaluations.
GSB’s service network includes 1,045 branches and a digital service channel as well as banking agents and business alliances nationwide. Currently, GSB has 21,317 officers and employees, divided into 5,257 persons in central areas and 16,060 persons in regional areas. GSB’s operating performances and financial statements are continuously growing and strong in deposit and credit. GSB assets are higher than USD 85 billion, with asset and debt management that have reasonable return rates and financing costs in the market. GSB also handles asset management to control the NPL rate at the lower level of the company compared to the rest of the banking industry.
GSB plays a significant role in sustainable business operations that focus on social and environmental responsibility by assigning 14 sustainable factors, a sustainable development policy, and adopting CSR principles to develop its process strategic and operational plans. Examples of initiatives and changes made are a social debenture issuance for fundraising to spend on several projects that align with GSB’s Social Mission and green loan offerings to business and retail customers to support social environment activities. Moreover, the ESG Scoring system is used to approve corporate business loans while also conducting resource optimizations for its business operations to reduce greenhouse gases according to Eco-Efficiency and one day achieve the Net Zero Emissions target.
During 3 years of its operation, GSB has developed products and services, operating processes, and run social projects that continuously drive the government’s policies. On its path of being a Social Bank that makes a positive impact on people and society, GSB has integrated its Social Mission into every significant procedure and initiative that the company runs.
GSB has developed its path for social impact at scale in the long run by setting reasonable costs, innovating its human resources management, and setting social targets and KPIs at both organizational and personal levels. The company will continue to drive its Social Mission along with business partners, in order to achieve the sustainable development goals according to the SDGs framework in reducing poverty and inequality.
In recognition of GSB’s long-term dedication to providing excellent products and services and its admirable initiatives to drive social change, GSB was conferred with the prestigious Linchpin of Asia Award 2023 by regional NGO Enterprise Asia. The Enterprise Asia Linchpin of Asia Awards is a premier program recognizing top-tier industry leaders and enterprises selectively chosen from across Asia, making this accolade serve as another grand milestone in GSB’s remarkable journey.
About Enterprise Asia Linchpin of Asia Awards 2023
The inaugural and prestigious Enterprise Asia Linchpin of Asia Awards is a premier recognition program dedicated to honoring only the excellent, the most elite and best of the best industry leaders and enterprises exclusively selected across Asia. The award honors the best business leaders and enterprises in Asia who have triumphed in the ever-changing waters of business, forging success at the peak of their respective industries, and provides them with the ideal platform for regional collaborations in 16 countries and across 24 industries. For more information, visit https://apea.asia/linchpinofasiaawards/.