BANGKOK, 19 Nov 2014, The Bank of Thailand (BoT) has reported that the nation’s national commercial banks made 53.8 billion baht in profits during Quarter 3.
BoT’s senior director of the payment systems, Policy Department, Jaturong Jantarangs, said the figures represented a 5.6% increase on-year, which is considered a slow growth rate in both regular business and consumer lending.
According to him, the quarter’s business lending growth is relatively close to the previous quarter’s, due mainly to the fact that some major companies have opted to issue bonds instead of taking out loans from commercial banks. The quality of loans during the quarter also dropped slightly.
Non-performing loans (NPL), rose to 2.34% from the second quarter of 2.28%. He attributed the rise to the increase in consumer lending, which rose to 2.54% from 2.4%.from the quarter before.
The commercial bank sector remains stable, however, said Mr. Jaturong, adding that the sector’s net profit in the third quarter was reported at 53.8 billion baht, a slight dip from Q 2’s.
