Krungthai Bank, officially Krungthai Bank Public Company Limited, and sometimes known by its initials KTB, is a state-owned bank under a license issued by the Ministry of Finance. SWIFT code of KTB is KRTTHHBK.
The bank came into existence on 14 March 1966 after the merger of two state-owned banks, Cassette Bank and Montan Bank. The merged banks were then renamed as “Krungthai Bank Limited”, with the logo as the image of the windward bird, which is also used by the Ministry of Finance.
On 2 August 1989, Krungthai Bank was the first state enterprise to list its shares on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET). Its major shareholder is the Ministry of Finance through a holding of 6,184 billion shares by the Financial Institutions Development Fund (FIDF), which accounts for 55.31 percent of the total shares.
Krungthai Bank has served as a channel for financial services in support of government initiatives. It does this by lending to certain types of businesses, such as One Tambon One Product (OTOP) loans, ICT computer loans and educational loans. In addition, the bank is used by most of the government agencies for disbursement. For example, the Department of Revenue issues tax refunds through Krungthai checks and it handles the distribution of government funds such as pension payments.
During Thailand’s economic crisis, the bank supported government policy to stimulate the national economy by providing the “Thai Khem Kheng Stimulus Package 2012” to boost liquidity.
In 2016, Krungthai was selected as the “Best Trade Finance Provider in Thailand 2016” by Global Finance magazine based on input from industry analysts, corporate executives and technology experts. Criteria for selecting the winners include: transaction volume, global coverage, customer service, competitive pricing and innovative technologies.
As of February 2017, Krungthai has the largest number of domestic branches of any Thai bank at 1,210.
The bank has branches in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap (sub-branch) in Cambodia, Vientiane in Laos and Mumbai in India. The bank also has wholesale banking branches in Kunming, Los Angeles and Singapore.
