THAI BANKING - Going it alone

At a time when the trend amongst Thai banks is to merge, Kiatnakin Bank stands out as an anomaly. Formally beginning commercial banking business on October 3 last year, it has just 16 branches, fewer than 1,000 employees and total assets of Bt68 billion (US$1.74 billion). It has also set itself aggressive expansion targets. Ben Davies asks whether Thailand's newest commercial bank can pull it off.