Kasikornbank CEO Banthoon Lamsam Visited Tsinghua School of Economics and Management and gave speech to students

May 12, 2006

Mr. Banthoon Lamsam, CEO of Kasikornbank, visited Tsinghua and delivered a speech at School of Economics and Management on May 12, 2006.

A crowd of MBA students at the Tsinghua School of Economics and Management were listening to his speech on Managing Risk in Asia – Case Study of Thailand’s Banking Sector, hosted by Prof. Xie Qun.

During his speech, Mr. Banthoonrecalled his own experience during 1997 Asian Financial Crisis. “I still remember that people queued up in front of one bank’s headquarter and asked for their own money.” said Mr. Banthoon.

He talked about the challenges facing banks in terms of risks.He said Banking operations involve dealing with various types of risks which are the by-products of markets and economic conditions, regulatory measures, policies, as well as the banks’ own internal operational procedures.

In conclusion, “Thai banks have come a long way since the 1997 economic crisis in managing risks. Since then, advanced tools and procedures of international standards have been employed to make sure that we will not go back that way again.” said Mr. Banthoon.

During the Q&A session, Mr.Banthoon shared withstudents hisopinion that consultants areusually more offindingthe problem, and the bank will still havetocarry out the deployment of customized risk tools.

Mr. Banthoon received an MBA from Harvard University and a Bachelor Degree in Chemical Engineering from Princeton University. He is currently a director and chief executive officer of Kasikornbank.