Carving a niche in SME banking

Teoh(pic) is confident of recording 30% growth this year.

BANKS have zeroed in on SMEs over the past few years even as margins in their other core business segments become thin.

But while other financial institutions have rolled out robust promotional campaigns early on to grow their small business portfolio, Hong Leong Bank has, admittedly, been a little late in the race for a share of the SME pie, says its SME banking head Terrence Teoh.

However, Teoh says there is still a niche that the bank can carve for itself within the SME segment.