AmBank aims to be one of top 3 premier banks

KUALA LUMPUR: AmBank (M) Bhd, which wants to grow its priority banking segment to make up 15% of its revenue for retail banking in three years, aims to be the top three premier banks in Malaysia by 2020.
AmBank Group CEO Datuk Sulaiman Mohd Tahir said its priority banking segment currently contributes 55% of its retail deposits or 5%-10% of its retail banking’s revenue. AmBank is looking at building a strong franchise by focusing on the priority segment.
Premier banks are measured in terms of its asset under management (AUM) and the number of customers. Sulaiman said the number of priority customers that the larger banks have is not far off from the number of priority customers that AmBank has, adding that the bank is close to top three in terms of its priority banking position in the market.
“There’s a question of priority banking, which was small once upon a time, but now that we’re focused in this business, we have customers in private (banking), in corporates... so we’re confident that we can be top three,” he told reporters after opening its seventh Signature Priority Banking Centre at Bangunan AmBank Group in Jalan Raja Chulan here last Friday.
Its AmBank Signature Priority Banking customer base has increased over four fold to 64,313 customers as at October this year, from 13,301 priority customers in December 2016. Out of 175 AmBank branches nationwide, at least 10 branches have a base of more than 1,000 priority customers.
“We have the customer base, we just have to work more with the customers. At the current environment, interest rate is relatively low so people have the opportunity to invest. With our current base of 64,313, there’s a lot of opportunities to further engage with customers,” said Sulaiman.
The bank opined that a strong and loyal customer database in the priority customer segment can increase the bank’s business and revenue. Hence, its customer value proposition includes a full suite of wealth management products and portfolio tool to provide a differentiated investment strategy as well as to increase the customers’ AUM.
AmBank will be opening its eighth Signature Priority Banking Centre in Johor Baru next year.