Krungthai Bank, one of the largest state-owned commercial banks in Thailand announced that it is expanding its multi-year collaboration with Google Cloud to accelerate open innovation and financial inclusion.

Under the expanded collaboration, Infinitas by Krungthai Co., Ltd (Infinitas), the bank’s digital innovation arm, will work with Google Cloud to build a scalable co-innovation platform and talent ecosystem that can effectively address the financial and lifestyle needs of all Thais.

The expanded collaboration will build on the success of Infinitas launching mobile app Pao Tang and Tung Ngern during the pandemic, with Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) playing an important role in getting these applications into the hands of 40 million Thai consumers and 500,000 small business owners.

The company is now using Apigee, Google Cloud’s industry-leading platform for building and managing application programming interfaces (APIs), to advance open innovation and address the financial and lifestyle needs of its Thai users. By choosing to run its applications on Google Cloud’s energy-efficient infrastructure, Infinitas is also reducing its IT workloads’ carbon footprint and contributing to Krungthai Bank’s goal of a 20% reduction in its operational carbon emissions by 2024.

Jakkrit Klinsmith, CEO, Arise by Infinitas, said: “Google Cloud’s dynamic autoscaling capabilities and developer-friendly tools truly came to the fore when our teams were working remotely and tasked with spinning up whole new applications for administering financial assistance. With 4 in 7 Thais now using Pao Tang, Infinitas is going a step further with Google Cloud to transform Pao Tang into an open digital platform that democratises access to financial services and offers third-party lifestyle products for improving quality of life. Google Cloud’s leadership in open source, sustainability, and nurturing a future-ready workforce makes it the ideal partner for creating the co-innovation ecosystem that’s needed to achieve our expanded vision.”

By adopting Apigee, Infinitas can easily integrate new digital offerings from its existing partners into the Pao Tang application. The addition of micro-investing services, for instance, will make it possible for individuals to invest small amounts of money in government bonds, corporate bonds, or other types of financial assets.

Through Apigee’s self-service developer portal, Infinitas can also onboard new partners in hours instead of months. This enables third-party developers to easily create new services for Pao Tang’s 40 million users by reusing Infinitas’ APIs. With Apigee’s built-in security capabilities, such as encryption key verification, identity brokering, traffic monitoring, and vulnerability detection, Infinitas can maintain full visibility over the use of its APIs and ensure that API access is only granted to authorised users, thereby preventing API misuse and protecting end-users’ data.

With a centrally-managed API programme in place, Infinitas is now embarking on co-innovation efforts with an expanded partner network to introduce gamification elements for improving financial literacy, alternative lending services for individuals who do not qualify for traditional bank loans, and more. To provide enhanced user support across its applications, Infinitas also plans to use Google Cloud’s conversational artificial intelligence (AI) APIs to transform its contact centre operations.

As part of its efforts to attract and retain top talent and nurture a company culture that embraces creativity and collaboration, Krungthai Bank has adopted Google Workspace to complement its flexible work arrangements. Google Workspace allows the bank’s 22,000 employees to contribute and communicate securely regardless of their location or device preference. The bank has also reported higher levels of staff productivity and satisfaction, due to AI-powered features in Google Workspace helping its employees to streamline workflows, minimise distractions, and avoid information overload.

To provide Infinitas’ partner network with access to specialised skills and expertise that may not be available within their organisations, Google Cloud is collaborating with Arise by Infinitas to run training and certification programmes for graduates and mid-career professionals. The goal is to cultivate a talent pool with deep proficiency in application modernisation, data science, AI, and cybersecurity to supercharge co-innovation. Arise by Infinitas, a joint venture between Infinitas and Accenture, was established in December 2021 to bridge digital skills gaps in Thailand’s financial sector and help establish the country as an international hub for world-class fintech talent.

April Srivikorn, country manager, Thailand, Google Cloud, said: “APIs and a vibrant talent ecosystem are crucial components for driving innovation at scale, enabling an organisation and its network of partners to develop new experiences for end-users rapidly and cost-effectively. Infinitas, through its API-first strategy and workforce development initiatives, is facilitating the creation of digital products and services that can reach a diverse range of people to help them improve their financial wellness and get closer to meeting their life goals. We look forward to supporting Infinitas’ efforts to better serve the unbanked and underbanked, while it scales for growth and empowers the workforce of the future.”

Re-disseminated by The Asian Banker