President Piriyah Wisedjinda said while 2006 was a year in which consumer-finance service providers had severe pressure put on their margins by new regulations, his company expected to grow by 10 per cent in 2007.

 Among the company's non-bank businesses, auto financial services for used cars, auto refinancing and motorcycle loans account for 50 per cent of its overall loan portfolio. This is followed by credit-card operations, amounting to 30 per cent and instalment finance and personal loans, each accounting for 10 per cent.

GE Money Thailand has also created two new positions as part of a new structure for its non-bank consumer-finance business.

 "We have recently created two new positions - chief marketing officer and chief sales officer - with overall responsibility for drawing up marketing and sales plans for auto finance, instalment finance and personal loans. The positions will be filled by Philip Tan and Pairote Chuenkrut, respectively," Piriyah said.

Previously, each of GE Money's products had separate marketing and sales officers, leading to duplication and layering of decision-making.

Piriyah said GE Money was

also revamping its 70 service locations in Bangkok and upcountry to turn them into one-stop shops offering multiple-products rather than a single one. For example, Quikcash service locations in Skytrain stations and major shopping centres will be turned into service centres for all GE Money products.

He said GE Money had also begun setting up four regional hubs to support its service centres.

"Instead of having an application processing and underwriting capability at each major location, we are consolidating those services into four centres in the North, the Northeast, Bangkok and the South. This will help us to provide even faster consideration of loan applications as well as more efficient risk management."