Bank credits for the second quarter of the year expanded lower than the three percent expansion rate recorded in the first quarter due to weak demand for credits amid slow economic recovery, said Mr Don Nakorntap, senior director of financial institution strategies of the Bank of Thailand, said Wednesday.
However, he predicted that credit expansion for the second half of the year would improve, especially during the third quarter.
NPLs for the second quarter were registered at 374 billion baht – about 16.3 billion up from the first quarter resulting in the increase of unreserved NPLs to 2.72 percent from 2.64 percent of overall credits.
Mr Don attributed the increase of NPLs to restructured debts which have become NPLs again. However, he said that new NPLs have not increased.
Overall net profits of commercial banks for the second quarter were recorded at 50.9 billion baht – a 4.6 percent drop from the net profits of the same period last year.
In an overall picture, he said commercial banks are very stable with their BAS being registered at 17.5 percent which is higher than the legally required 8.5 percent.
