BANGKOK, 2 May 2014 – The Bank of Thailand (BOT) said commercial banks would enforce more stringent measures on issuing loans in the second quarter of 2014 to prevent the surge of non-performing loans (NPLs).
According to the BOT’s quarterly credit condition survey to review opinions of senior loan officers from local financial institutions, business loans for SMEs and personal retail loans would be tightened by all creditors.
The central bank said that commercial banks would apply stricter loan policies to SMEs in the tourism, construction, real estate, and textile industries respectively.
Meanwhile, many types of personal retail loans, especially credit card and micro household borrowing would be tightened too.
Recently, creditors have experienced mounting numbers of late payments from the households and they also believe they are also exposed to a higher default risk from SMEs.
