Douglas Marks
The Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) moved back to Thailand on June 16,1997, which they offered corporate and correspondent banking services from there office located on wireless road. On July 2, the government reacted to the financial and property collapse of the economy by floating the baht (domestic currency) for the first time in thirteen years. Then the bleeding of the collapse of the market was finally sealed when the International Monetary Fund (IMF) intervened and started a 16.7 billion dollar bailout funding program to help Thailand recover from the financial crisis. This was the largest bailout fund since the Mexican peso crisis in 1992. Mark Bielarczyk, Country Manager for the RBC knew that opening an office in an emerging market, such as Asia, required patience and persistence. Some of the challenges in emerging markets especially in Asia are: volatility in economic growth, poor information quality, political instability, and barriers to entry. Mark Bielarczyk knew that to fail in Thailand would affect the RBC’s chance to grow its commodity trade finance business, service multinationals, and produce solid returns from trading activities. Mark Bielarczyk having a strong work experience background had to present a strategy about how the company should react to the financial crisis and provide an update to the Senior Vice-President Phil Brewster.
Based on history the RBC actually opened a representative office in Bangkok with limited operations in the early 1980s. The RBC tried to emerge in the financial sector and develop a strong presence in Thailand, but there was no change in the regulatory environment with other less developed countries (LDC) portfolio problems, the bank had to close its office in 1986. After eleven years in May 23, 1997, the Canadians returned back to Thailand’s financial market. This was largely due to many opportunities