KBank president Predee Daochai represented the bank at the SET Sustainability Awards 2018 held recently in the Exchange’s Professor Sangvian Indaravijaya Auditorium.

He was called up to accept an “Outstanding” award and a “Sustainability Investment” award.

The awards recognise listed companies that show outstanding business performance based on sustainable-development guidelines and serve as good examples for other businesses in the Thai capital market.

The lounge at Gate 3 has 147 square metres of space and features a mix of Thai and Lanna styling.

It offers dishes from THAI’s own catering menu as well as from several well-known Chiang Mai restaurants.

He said that the new platform, Stayy with Hostmaker, would debut in Thailand ahead of Hostmaker’s existing European markets, in order to serve the growing demand for high-end, vetted accommodation in Bangkok.

Sharma said Stayy allows visitors and expats to search for medium and long-term accommodation, on a flexible contract, with the assurance that all properties are |legal and have been vetted by Hostmaker’s experts.

“Bangkok is the most visited city in the world. Millions of tourists, students, expats and business travellers flock to the city every year, looking for legal and vetted properties to hire for at least a month and up to a year, making it the perfect market for us to launch Stayy with Hostmaker,” Sharma said.

“The local market regulations around short-term lets provides us with the perfect environment for our brand-new medium to long term lettings platform, and we’re excited to be debuting Stayy in Bangkok.”

Established in 2014 in London, Hostmaker has hosted more than 250,000 guests and generated more than Bt2.1 billion for homeowners. Hostmaker was the winner in the “Best Short Term Rental Platform” category at the Serviced Apartment Award last year, based on its record of bringing higher yields for its homeowners and memorable experiences for their guests, Sharma said. Since launching in Bangkok in September, Hostmaker has added over 50 properties to its Thai portfolio.

“Fully compliant with local regulations, Hostmaker vets all properties and only leases them for a minimum of 30 days,” Sharma said. “It is currently difficult for visitors to Bangkok to find a legal property to rent for a month upwards, so Hostmaker has created Stayy: a platform that enables users to book home rentals with assurances of personal service, flexibility and security with just one click.

“The key features of the Stayy platform are including exceptional properties, hand-selected for their outstanding design, quality and comfort.

“Top Bangkok locations, thoughtfully considered with a variety of options to suit guest needs, from vibrant city-centre condos to tranquil neighbourhoods.

“Round the clock personal service, with local experts at the end of the phone 24/7 to support guests during their search and throughout their stay.”

Sharma said the company offers “total flexibility”. However long guests are planning to stay, they won’t be tied into a strict contract, and the whole process is hassle-free, he said.

“To serve such demand and needs for consumers, Hostmaker is working with its key investor Sansiri Plc, a Thai real estate developer, to identify key property opportunities in Bangkok, including The XXXIX, Hasu Haus, Keyne by Sansiri and The Monument Sanampao.

“Stayy with Hostmaker takes us a step further in our mission to unlock the potential of every home in Bangkok, bringing our hotel-quality homes to a new breed of travellers. Through Stayy, we will deliver unique homes and unique experiences to Bangkok.”

Packed with services that answer to changing customer lifestyles, staff with financial advisory expertise, and full-fledged cutting-edge technologies.

The bank plans to open at least 12 new smart branches in 2019, said Phonganant Thanattrai, head of retail banking and distribution yesterday.

 He added that under the customer-centricity principle, four types of branchs have been introduced: (i) smart branch – a branch equipped with automatic machines for self-service transactions and full-time staff presence for advice; (ii) smart kiosk – a kiosk with automatic machines for self-service transactions with more limited staff presence for advice; (iii) partnership branch – a special branch jointly run with other organizations, e.g. universities; and (iv) typical branch – a normal type of branch.

In all, six mobile operators and 20 financial institutions have joined forces with the regulator to enable the faster verification of mobile phone numbers of those seeking to register for PromptPay.

The companies and the NBTC yesterday jointly announced the improved procedure, which would see the banks and telcos adopt the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) *179 code, from January 1.

The code is aimed at addressing the issue that people can encounter when, after signing up for new mobile numbers, they are blocked in their initial efforts to register the new numbers for PromptPay. The problem stems from the same phone numbers being still tied to the PromptPay and banking accounts of the previous owners of the numbers.

From January, the new owners of such phone numbers can dial *179*, followed by the number of their identity cards and #, and call out to obtain a reference code.

The code will be used by the banks to verify to identity of the applicants for the PromptPay service with related parties. In this way, the banks that receive the PromptPay applications can work with other banks to quickly untie the account links between the past and current owners of the mobile phone numbers.

The advent of the reference code saves time and effort in rectifying the problem.

The PromptPay system enables money transfers via electronic channels that rely on the ID numbers or mobile phone numbers tied to the recipients’ bank accounts, instead of their bank account numbers.

Initiated by the Bank of Thailand in 2016, the PromptPay service has around 45 million users. Some 16 million phone numbers have been used to register accounts, with ID numbers used for the rest of the account openings. The accrued value of transactions has reached Bt3.9 trillion.

The Bank of Thailand’s assistant governor for payment systems policy and financial technology group, Siritida Panomwon Na Ayudhya, said yesterday that the new system would enhance people’s trust in PromptPay and could be used with other related services in the future.

The mobile phone operators participating in the USSD system are Advanced Info Service, Total Access Communication, RealMove, TrueMove, TOT, and CAT Telecom.