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[webfact]

File photo

 

by Michael Bridge

 

Thailand’s police revealed that some money lending rackets are charging interest at up to 60% per month on loans.

Rising household debt, coupled with soaring inflation has become one of Thailand’s most chronic problems. 

This coupled with weeks of no income due to the Pandemic has created a major problem for many low-income Thais.

A crackdown across the country’s northeastern provinces led by top police officer General Surachate Hakparn urged anyone in the kingdom who finds themselves under duress from loan sharks not to hesitate to call in the police.

The Anti-Money Laundering Office is targeting kingpins directing smashed illegal money lending networks.

Also, the Revenue Department and the Anti-Money Laundering Office were initiating action against the heads of the networks to audit their finances and to seize assets believed to be the proceeds of illegal activity.

Many people in Thailand have fallen by the wayside of traditional banking arrangements and have therefore developed poor credit scores.

Or people who have never been able to obtain banking facilities at all, turn to street money lenders and a world that, in Thailand, has gotten more sinister over the last ten years.

Even Factories owners targeted 

Loan sharks are being operated by sophisticated gangs from Malaysia, Korea and across Thailand.
They will stop at nothing to get back bad debts.

This week it was reported that loan sharks across Vietnam have resorted to new tactics, commercial harassment at businesses and factories.

Predatory loan sharks there are now harassing the employers of workers who've defaulted on payments, threatening destructive action against their business as well as relatives.

 

As an example, the hotline at HCMC-based logistics firm Long Rich Vietnam Co. Ltd has been ringing almost all day. 

The callers are loan sharks demanding that the company cooperates and "hands over" workers who have borrowed money from them.

The usurers threaten that if the company, fails to cooperate, they will publicize harmful information about the company on social media or send gangsters over to damage its factory.

The constant calling, starting early in the morning and going on until late in the night, makes it impossible for the company to receive calls from their customers or partners.

And this is not all. The loan sharks also call company officials, including union heads and those working in its administrative office on their cell phones, making the same demands and threats.

 

Long Rich Vietnam and Pouyuen Vietnam have not been able to hire new employees because their recruitment hotlines have also been disrupted by the loan sharks.

This commercial harassment is also starting to spread across SE Asia.

What can governments do?

Apart from increasing the number of police and staff at the Anti-Money Laundering Offices, it would seem it is up to the banking system to act quickly to help these low-income workers.

If the banks can offer low-interest loans without any major background checks, then many would not need to go to these loan sharks in the first place.

Meanwhile, the loan shark gangs are making life miserable for the debtors and their employers and families.

 

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[Gknrd]

In the US we have Payday loans, put up your title for a outrageous interest rate. People loose their cars homes.. Government does nothing, maybe a slap on the wrist once in a while. 

[soi3eddie]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

They will stop at nothing to get back bad debts.

If it was just the original debt then it would a minor issue. The true problem is the escalating and extortionate daily/weekly or monthly interest rates charged.

 

 

 

[stoner]

business model

 

loan people money who can't afford it

dont get money back in many instances

harass people threaten them etc

still don't get money back

 

rinse and repeat

 

 

[SuwadeeS]

I remember, that Prayut ordered a crackdown on them....

So, that did not work 

 

[AhFarangJa]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Also, the Revenue Department and the Anti-Money Laundering Office were initiating action against the heads of the networks to audit their finances and to seize assets believed to be the proceeds of illegal activity.

While you are at it why not have a look at certain people in the top jobs, who gained their position through coercion and the gun. Then seize their assets and ill gotten gains, and divide it among the poorer citizens.

[Iamfalang]

Education system fails them.

Companies pay nothing.

Hope fades.

YouTube and Tik Tok shows nice things

Splash a little bad luck..

 

now to borrow money.    Probably after all the credit cards are maxxed out.

 

Loan sharks have to be the absolute last resort.  Fake Gofundme has to be better....lol

[joloit]

What we are seeing here is the end result of parenting and educational omissions. Work hard and ask for your wage. Only in this order will life work!! I feel sorry for the victims of these leeches!!

[RichardColeman]

Be fair, that photo could be anything here, Loans sharks, students beating each other, a fair 7 on one fight, bouncers on a non-payer, plain clothes police..............list is endless

 

[klauskunkel]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

people who have never been able to obtain banking facilities at all, turn to street money lenders and a world that, in Thailand, has gotten more sinister over the last ten years.

How is that even possible with 8 years of continuous happiness-spreading by the military and its adorable Über-General?

[thaigirlwatcher1]

2 hours ago, stoner said:

business model

 

loan people money who can't afford it

dont get money back in many instances

harass people threaten them etc

still don't get money back

 

rinse and repeat

 

 

Are you talking about China and Cambodia?  Just kidding...

[Orinoco]

Earn it before you spend it.

Nah, it's just not the Thai way.

Big face,  is more important to them.

 

 

[Roosterlips]

I thought 7 on 1 beatdowns were only on falangs….

[Iron Tongue]

4 hours ago, Gknrd said:

In the US we have Payday loans, put up your title for a outrageous interest rate. People loose their cars homes.. Government does nothing, maybe a slap on the wrist once in a while. 

That's small-time compared to credit card companies.  They mail out millions of new credit cards each year that charge 29.9% APR interest, compounded daily.  

 

There's only ~1,000,000 who take payday loans.

There are over 1.1 billion credit cards issued in the US.

[Henryford]

16 minutes ago, Iron Tongue said:

That's small-time compared to credit card companies.  They mail out millions of new credit cards each year that charge 29.9% APR interest, compounded daily.  

 

There's only ~1,000,000 who take payday loans.

There are over 1.1 billion credit cards issued in the US.

But VISA doesn't break your legs if you don't pay.

[itsari]

5 minutes ago, Henryford said:

But VISA doesn't break your legs if you don't pay.

Garnishment of wages take place with huge penalties for default . Better to get a bash over the head 

[scorecard]

3 hours ago, soi3eddie said:

If it was just the original debt then it would a minor issue. The true problem is the escalating and extortionate daily/weekly or monthly interest rates charged.

 

 

 

Example: One of my Thai son's buddies has a mortgage (monthly payment is 80% of his take home salary). Also has 2 car loans and borrowed money to take his wife and 2 kids on a holiday in Japan. Plus he's late paying small school fees.

 

Quickly much pressure from bank and 2 registered finance institutions. He's seriously bankrupt and struggling to feed his kids. (My son and his wife have been giving them a lot of fresh/cooked food.)

 

He contacted a loan shark and after 6 months he's in even further debt.

 

His aunt (who he has little contact with) is a bank manager. She was made aware of his plight and came quickly to see him and she/s made some progress with reducing the overall debt and she's instigated action against the illegal loan shark.

 

But what she's also done is to carefull talk to a lot of local people to tell them:

 

- If you can't pay the full amount of your mortgage, car loan etc., quickly make a small payment but do it every month. After a few months go into the bank / car finance company and ask for a delay or reduction on the interest rate.

 

She revealed that her bank has hundreds of thousands of mortgage/loan holders who are paying very small monthly amounts, the bank understands why this happening and accepts that the small payments are OK until the borrower finds better circumstances  and it may be a long time in the future.

[Iron Tongue]

16 minutes ago, Henryford said:

But VISA doesn't break your legs if you don't pay.

Neither do payday loans.

 

In practice, loan sharks are not as violent as you think.  Since their profit comes from the weekly "vig", injured debtors cannot work.

Loan sharks do things like harrass your family, take your collateral, and now show up at work it appears.

[FarangFB]

2 minutes ago, scorecard said:

borrowed money to take his wife and 2 kids on a holiday in Japan

This is the thing, pretty much every broke person I know has spent on something they don't need. Buying things way outside their budget, gambling, partying too much.

 

 

[Bkk Brian]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

Meanwhile, the loan shark gangs are making life miserable for the debtors and their employers and families.

Filth who pray on the vulnerable with countless articles on the violence they inflict when they are not paid on time

[TKDfella]

I, like other expats, have in the past and presently tried to help (local) Thais. But there is, and has to be, a limit on what we might/could do and in some cases might actually be detrimental. In the end it is the local government who should deal with it. The Thai tourism industry all but collapsed and the government had no plan B, with both proprietors and workers now suffering. 

[scorecard]

1 hour ago, Bkk Brian said:

Filth who pray on the vulnerable with countless articles on the violence they inflict when they are not paid on time

Over decades Thailand has had many 'campaigns' to stamp out the illegal loan shark industry. None of these campaigns have achieved anything long-term.

[StevieAus]

2 hours ago, Orinoco said:

Earn it before you spend it.

Nah, it's just not the Thai way.

Big face,  is more important to them.

 

 

It’s no different in most Western countries the concept of live and spend now and pay later ( or not pay ) has been around for more years than I can remember.

Credit in the West particularly with credit cards has been so easy to obtain that people are sucked in.

When I lived in Australia I regularly received

offers of a new  credit card with a guaranteed large credit limit.

My own bank used to automatically increase my credit limit every year which I then had to decline.

I paid my balance in full every month so no interest was paid.o

[Orinoco]

3 minutes ago, StevieAus said:

It’s no different in most Western countries the concept of live and spend now and pay later ( or not pay ) has been around for more years than I can remember.

Credit in the West particularly with credit cards has been so easy to obtain that people are sucked in.

When I lived in Australia I regularly received

offers of a new  credit card with a guaranteed large credit limit.

My own bank used to automatically increase my credit limit every year which I then had to decline.

I paid my balance in full every month so no interest was paid.o

Live now pay latter is pretty dumb.

where ever you come from.

 

[Orinoco]

54 minutes ago, TKDfella said:

I, like other expats, have in the past and presently tried to help (local) Thais. But there is, and has to be, a limit on what we might/could do and in some cases might actually be detrimental. In the end it is the local government who should deal with it. The Thai tourism industry all but collapsed and the government had no plan B, with both proprietors and workers now suffering. 

It's nearly always a wast of your money helping Thai people out with cash.

They just go do it all again.

Help them with food, water, rent, electric bills, sure if you want to.

But cash, NO WAY.

 

 

[hansnl]

Gangs from Korea?

Gangs from Malaysia?

Some local gangs?

Not from China?

Really?

[sletraveler]

My sister in law owed enough to a loan shark at her factory work place so the interest alone took nearly her entire paycheck.   She couldn’t pay any principal.   I lent her the money to pay it off and she paid me back.  

[spidermike007]

This is symptomatic of just how decimated the Thai economy is at this time. Few want to admit it. 

[Orinoco]

4 hours ago, SuwadeeS said:

I remember, that Prayut ordered a crackdown on them....

So, that did not work 

 

Well the cops and there families were never going to close down any income streams, so it was just a joke to start with. 

 

[StevieAus]

5 minutes ago, Orinoco said:

Live now pay latter is pretty dumb.

where ever you come from.

 

I agree it is but that’s the way of the world,  it runs on credit businesses, governments etc etc