BOX 1 : INTERNATIONAL FORCES OF CHANGE
(1) New Technology: Introduction and application of new technological tools have created more convenient and efficient channels of delivery thereby paving the way for new types of players such as E-banking service providers. With these new tools, financial service providers are no longer inhibited from providing their services purely by physical barriers, but rather they can now access new potential customers with just a few computer keystrokes.
(2) Liberalization and Deregulation: The global trend towards further liberalization and deregulation continues to heighten the level of competition and improve efficiency among local and international players. The challenge for regulators then concerns the ability to harness the benefits of liberalization and deregulations in support of economic growth, while minimizing potential adverse consequences with sufficient regulatory oversight.
(3) Increasing Customer Sophistication: Given entry of new financial players and introduction of new channels of delivery, consumers now have access to a myriad of financial products and services. With new investment products competing with traditional savings instruments, the challenge for financial service providers will relate to their ability to re-orient their business operations to better respond to more sophisticated customer demands.
These evolutionary forces of change have in effect increased competition from non-traditional players, encouraged intra-industry consolidation, and increased performance pressures on financial institutions to innovate due to falling profit margins. Some examples of the material impact from the forces of change on Thailand are as follows:
A. Disintermediation and Securitization: Commercial banks are being bypassed as the traditional providers of credit and savings products either by the market or other non-intermediary institution. Some new players do not provide financial products but rather serve as information channels between customers and a variety of financial service providers thereby becoming a new type of intermediary.
B. Disaggregation and Reaggregation: Global forces are breaking up and reassembling companies in ways that enable new entrants to serve commercial bank customers often more effectively and efficiently than traditional providers. They are able to do this because they design their business systems around specific customer and market needs rather than around regulatory or geographic barriers. In essence, global forces are enabling new entrants to pool together parts of the business system and create new types of intermediation, i.e. electronic marketplaces/intermediaries.
C. Intra-industry Consolidation and Convergence: Institutions have found it easier to grow and meet stock market expectations through these external means rather than through slow organic growth.