Oul Dethsokhom

Despite pandemic turbulence, FY 2021 was still a landmark year for a newly-minted bank (“DGB Bank, the Bank or DGB”). Under the new leadership, manifold grand achievements were realized the year ended.

After rigorous preparations for nearly one year, DGB was “inaugurated as commercial bank” on September 01, 2021, with esteemed virtual participation from CEO of Daegu Bank and top management of the Bank. Throughout the year, the Bank unveiled four flagship products: deposits (CASA), remittance (domestic & Oversea), DGB Mobile app and ATMs services. It’s strongly convinced these products/services will serve public the best, further diversifying products and boosting performance of the Bank. To captivate the public for the new products, the Bank has offered myriad promotions. As the result, these products have gained traction among the public.

DGB still achieved key financial metrics in the face of the Covid-19 :
– The total asset was increased to 28.10% to US$ 381.89 million
– The loan outstanding soared 17.33 % to US$ 283.42 million
– The deposit saw 799.94 % surge to US$ 6.74 million.
– The net operating income surged 8.25% to US$25.75 million

We believe as a constructive member of society, DGB has an integral role in supporting the real people, real lives, real economies and share the pain in a downturn. The Bank has, in line with the NBC’s Prakas, lent hands to the clients by undertaking the plight of loan restructures, easing their grim burden during financial predicament. In addition, we have participated in government-sponsored bank (SME Bank Plc.), acting as a channel to disburse credit to SME-prioritized clients with favorable interest rate (7% per annum). Next, we are poised to enter into another government-led credit-guarantee scheme dedicated to support SME business which could not procure funding source its own collaterals/guarantee.

The Bank perceives the quality of asset and sustainable growth on the top of every decision making. We never spare ourselves to adhere to all new regulations, particularly the enforcement of loan provisions triggered by the pandemic. All the loan restructurings and provisions were undergone robust reviews and undertaking. Consequently, the NPL rate as of end 2021 was wisely managed at 0.25 %, far better than the average peers.

In late 2020, the Bank was fraught with the real estate acquisition dispute where the appointed agent was failing to materialize the promised result, risking the Bank to lose whopping US$12.05 million. In 2021 CEO led, however, a concerted effort, ultimately striking a peaceful dispute settlement , recouping US$7 million in May 2021. This feat should not have been possible without tremendous supports from all stakeholders.

Manpower productivity is indispensable to the Bank’s success and growth. We have embarked upon new KPIs and reward system, dedicated to assuring meritocracy-based benefit and compensation practices.

Speed and quality of the services remains the utmost competitive edge as our business strategy hinges on non-interest strength. We will continue to innovate and streamline product and service processes, especially the credit products to be as quick and frictionless as possible to satisfy customer’s evolving behaviors. In addition, we will equip loan relationship ocers with requisite skills and leadership to serve the client professionally.

The Bank is determined to establish business partnerships with many stakeholders. Firstly, we are going to ink partnership agreements with real estate developers to diversify sale drivers and capitalize on bullish housing market and boost the non-SME credit sales. Secondly, we are actively studying and evaluating possibility of providing loans to corporate and financial institutions (FIs) provided that these market sections are increasingly deemed viable. Thirdly, we will pursue cooperation with renown coffee shop (s), erecting portable booths to serve deposit and mobile banking services to walk-in clients this will intensify sale channels and cultivate brand awareness. To achieve these goals, we are planning to upskill our incumbents and tap few seasoned commercial bankers to support these initiatives.

Without doubt, digitalization is embedded in virtually every aspect of life, let alone banking – it provides myriad operational supremacy and create real value proposition to clients and society. These days, FIs have been proliferating it’s digital infrastructures and products to cater for the client’s fast evolving behavior.

We’re aware of pivotal integration of technology into banking operations and products. Under the current plan, we will accelerate the project in pipelines (RFT, CSS Card, Bakong etc.) and have them debuted as envisioned. Our staff (IT & product development team) have been deeply exposed to on-hand experiences with the Mobile C&C during the development. This joint development, chiefly aimed at transferring knowledge and know-how to our staff. These schemes will be one of the key assets for innovating and customizing future banking ecosystem by ourselves. Besides, we will focus on upgrading and simplifying existing product features and processes, especially DGB Mobile app to be more user-friendly, frictionless and
highly scalable.

The Bank always takes risk perspective into considerations for every top agenda. We’re mindful of critical roles of risk management, compliance and internal audit in establishing sound business framework and enhancing internal control system. Under the commercial bank scope, the independent departments will broaden their scopes of jobs, covering across spectrum of business risks and developing robust risk management and compliance tools to address any significant risk posed to the Bank.

Finally, we would like to thank our Board of Directors for their tireless efforts in guiding the bank’s strategies, and we are grateful to our regulatory authorities, esteemed shareholders, and valued customers for their continued support.

Sincerely yours,

Oul Dethsokhom, CEO