Government Savings Bank (Thailand) Improving Lives through Innovation

The Government Savings Bank (Thailand) is a shining example of how innovation can improve lives. It has a long history dating back to 1863, making it one of the oldest banks in Thailand.

With its commitment to digital transformation, the bank has introduced various online services, such as mobile banking and online loan applications, making it easier for customers to manage their finances remotely. This has increased customer satisfaction and reduced the time spent on banking transactions.

The bank's efforts to improve lives through innovation have not gone unnoticed, with it being recognized as one of the top banks in Thailand for several years. Its dedication to customer-centric banking has earned it a reputation as a trustworthy and reliable financial institution.

The Government Savings Bank (GSB) in Thailand has a rich history dating back to 1913 when King Vajiravudh introduced it to encourage people to save.

GSB is a state-owned financial institution operating under the supervision of the Ministry of Finance.

With almost 1,000 branches across the country, GSB offers a broad range of financial products.

The Government Savings Bank, or GSB, has a rich history that dates back to 1913 when King Vajiravudh introduced a means to save money in Thailand to promote thrift and savings.

King Vajiravudh issued an act to formally set up a "Savings Office" under the Royal Treasury. This marked the beginning of the bank's operations.

In 1929, during a period of economic depression, King Rama VII transferred the bank to the Post and Telegraph Department to make it more convenient for citizens.

The bank established new businesses, such as travel savings, capital accumulation savings, and house deposit savings. By the end of 1936, a total of 104 branches were around the country.

After World War II, the government transformed the Savings Office into a juristic person, to be operated independently under the supervision of a board of directors appointed by the finance minister.

The office was renamed the Government Savings Bank (GSB), effective 1 April 1947. Today, GSB operates 1,141 branches throughout the country.

Our mission is to provide personalized banking services that meet the unique needs of our customers, with a focus on building long-term relationships and fostering a sense of community.

We strive to be a trusted partner for our customers, offering a wide range of financial products and services that are tailored to their individual circumstances.

At the heart of our mission is a commitment to customer satisfaction, with a goal of delivering exceptional service and support.

Our vision is to be the bank of choice for our customers, known for our expertise, integrity, and commitment to excellence.

We aim to achieve this vision by continuously innovating and improving our products and services, staying ahead of the curve in terms of technology and industry trends.

By staying true to our values and mission, we are confident that we can make a positive impact on the lives of our customers and the communities we serve.

GSB's digital transformation was a game-changer, allowing them to launch unsecured Covid relief loans within a month through their mobile app, MyMo.

The bank's shift to a microservices-based infrastructure was key to this success, enabling them to maintain, modify, and scale existing services independently without affecting other applications.

GSB's adoption of agile methodology and DevOps simplified the development process, allowing them to roll out and scale new digital products quickly to customers.

This approach also helped the bank attract better talent, as they were able to move at a faster pace and innovate more quickly.

YottaDB's performance and scalability can process 60 million accounts on a single real-time core system. This allows all transactions to go straight through to the database of record.

Logical multi-site functionality ensures the application is available 24/7, regardless of when customers wish to bank.

GSB operates a message-based application to maintain the integrity of balances and financial transactions. This is critical to the fiduciary responsibilities of a financial institution.

A message with a financial transaction is routed to the next available stateless server process from a pool, and committed to the database as an ACID transaction. This ensures the transaction is processed correctly and reliably.

With real-time replication, if the processing system goes down, a secondary can be switched in within seconds, and a user session may not even notice the switchover. This is because all session state is in the database.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, GSB was able to launch unsecured Covid relief loans within a month through its mobile app, MyMo.

The bank shifted the entire loan cycle, from application to repayment and debt restructuring, to digital self-service on the app, which can now process more than 400,000 loan applications in a single day.

GSB's prior migration to an open source environment was crucial to its success. This allowed the bank to adopt a modular, microservices-based infrastructure that runs on Red Hat's container platform.

By using this platform, GSB can update one application independently without affecting the operation of other services, which was not possible with its previous software package.

Sarawut Nanakorn, Senior Executive Vice President of GSB's Digital Banking Group, highlighted the benefits of open source, saying that the bank can now upgrade at any time without causing downtime.

GSB also simplified the development process by adopting agile methodology and DevOps, which has allowed the bank to roll out and scale new digital products in a quicker time frame to customers.

By using microservices, GSB has been able to provide essential services to rural communities, who face higher costs in traveling to physical banking outlets, through its user-friendly mobile app.

Government Savings Bank (Thailand) has taken a bold approach to reaching more citizens through partner integration.

The bank has used open source technology to work with a broader range of partners, including mobile phone networks, life insurance companies, and 7-Eleven stores.

GSB's partnership with 7-Eleven stores allows customers to deposit money at the counter services in real-time, with the money going directly into their bank account.

This innovative approach has been so successful that the bank was the first to offer customers the ability to withdraw and deposit money at 7-Eleven in Thailand in 2018.

By replacing its legacy digital platform with Red Hat Integration, the bank developed an open banking platform to host its APIs and provide managed services to third-party providers.

The bank's open platform connects its MyMo and in-branch tablet devices to its core banking services, allowing customers to access critical banking services from banking outlets, stores, and their phones at their own convenience.

This approach has made the onboarding experience easier for partners, enabling GSB to create and deliver features its customers want faster.

The success of this approach has been recognized by Thailand's Digital Government Development Agency, which has enabled citizens to access the government's online services in 7-Eleven stores.