Representatives from the Government Housing Bank of Thailand met with members of N&P’s management team at their head office at Lynch Wood, Peterborough. The visit was part of a week long fact-finding tour of the UK and Germany that included the Building Societies Association (BSA) in London, N&P and the European Federation of Building Societies (EFBS) in Berlin.
The purpose of the visit was to look at how the building society sector operates in the UK with a view to adopting a similar operation in Thailand. During their day at N&P, the delegates met with managers from various business areas including sales, marketing, finance and operations, looking mainly at residential lending. The group were particularly interested in the advantages and disadvantages of buildings societies compared to banks. Matthew Bullock’s recent appointment as chairman of the BSA includes acting as a spokesperson for the sector and meeting with foreign visitors to discuss various financial subjects.
Bullock said: “At the request of the BSA we entertained a party of six Thai mortgage bankers from the Government Housing Bank of Thailand. The visitors wanted to understand how we developed new funding and mortgage products for our market. They have been growing their balance sheet by 50 per cent a year and thought they were running out of ideas. They were certainly very impressed by our marketing, risk and IT capabilities.”
