Bank Savings Interest Rates

[Oorinara]

Deposit insurance scheme and planned timeline for lowering threshold linked herein.

http://www.dpa.or.th/main.php?filename=index___EN

Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect Thailand

[chiang mai]

Deposit insurance scheme and planned timeline for lowering threshold linked herein.

http://www.dpa.or.th/main.php?filename=index___EN

Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect Thailand

Those dates have already been extended once, it is likely they will be extended again if the economy so warrants.

[Obb]

LH Bank, Islamic Bank and Thanachart, three of the weakest financial institutions ...

Source?

[chiang mai]

LH Bank, Islamic Bank and Thanachart, three of the weakest financial institutions ...

Source?

Take your pick, there's loads of stuff out there including the bail out of the Islamic Bank resulting from NPL's. L&H is less than a billion and Thanachart, rebadged and much recovered from the days when it was the prime lender that caused the 97 crash, still ranks lowest of all the majors.

http://www.theasianbanker.com/press-releases/bangkok-bank-tops-ab-500-strongest-bank-balance-sheets-ranking-in-thailand

http://www.theasianbanker.com/press-releases/bangkok-bank-tops-ab-500-strongest-bank-balance-sheets-ranking-in-thailand

[falang07]

well, in Cyprus and USA it was the biggest banks that failed so being big is no guarantee either

[chiang mai]

well, in Cyprus and USA it was the biggest banks that failed so being big is no guarantee either

I wasn't referring to biggest or smallest I was referring to weakest.

[falang07]

then please provide a reputable resource based on which you consider these banks weak

[chiang mai]

then please provide a reputable resource based on which you consider these banks weak

Please read post 1237, plus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_banks_in_Thailand,

1 Bangkok Bank US$79.0 billion 2 Siam Commercial Bank US$77.1 billion 3 Krung Thai Bank US$76.5 billion 4 Kasikorn Bank US$69.7 billion 5 Bank of Ayudhya US$35.9 billion 6 Thanachart Bank US$32 billion

NB: the above refers to BAY before it was acquired by Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi.

Plus, for L&H:

"the rating is constrained by the bank’s relatively weak profitability, low franchise value resulting in small market shares in loans and deposits

smaller distribution network, and less diversified revenue sources.

LH BANK also faces intensifying competition in the banking industry, as well as uncertainties in the worldwide economy".

http://www.trisrating.com/en/pdf/announcement/LH%20BANK67-e-210813.pdf

[Obb]

Take your pick, there's loads of stuff out there including the bail out of the Islamic Bank resulting from NPL's. L&H is less than a billion and Thanachart, rebadged and much recovered from the days when it was the prime lender that caused the 97 crash, still ranks lowest of all the majors.

http://www.theasianbanker.com/press-releases/bangkok-bank-tops-ab-500-strongest-bank-balance-sheets-ranking-in-thailand

http://www.theasianbanker.com/press-releases/bangkok-bank-tops-ab-500-strongest-bank-balance-sheets-ranking-in-thailand

Take my pick from the two links you provided: they are identical, the report is 9 months old, and it seems none of the banks you mentioned are mentioned in it - possibly because they do not qualify for inclusion based on their size.

As far as the "loads of stuff out there", could you please provide at least one good source. Seems to me at least one ratings agency recently gave Thanachart a rating superior to Bangkok Bank. It's out there - could have been TRIS, Fitch, or Moody's, I forget, but look it up.

Ooops, an edit now as I see you have posted again ...

If we follow your pdf link to the TRIS rating for LH Bank we see that it was given a HIGH rating of A- ... begging the questions: Are you are arguing with yourself? Or are you deliberately trying to deceive your readers.

[chiang mai]

"LH Bank, Islamic Bank and Thanachart, three of the weakest financial institutions"

L&H Bank is under 1 bill. in assets hence when expats are looking for a suitable bank in Thailand it would strike me as very strange that they might opt to use L&H whn they are so small and as Tris Ratings points out, inherently weak.

The link to the Asian Banker in post 1237 shows their rankings of banks in Thailand and none of the three banks even feature, possibly as a function of asset size - wiki in it's list shows Thanachart at number 6 position with half the asset size of the 5th bank on the list, Thanachart is by definition a weaker bank compared to its competition.

Islamic Bank was the subject of fraud inquiries fairly recently and several senior execs were replaced as a result, they are currently trying to sell their non-performing loans portfolio to a credit company but this has not been done yet since their new President resigned after only nine months in the job. Call me old fashioned if you like but fraud and risk management controls are a part of any banks strengths and these have been almost non-existent at Islamic Bank.

Now, if either of you are not happy that those things make the case that the three banks are weaker than the other retail banks in Thailand, please feel free to post links of your own and make a counter argument.

EDIT: Once last thing, if you guys want to continue this debate I'll ask the mods to create a new thread that discusses just this point, that way we can leave the thread that discusses interest rates in tact and not deter others from using it.

[Obb]

Thank you for this post as your comment below relieves all of us from further concern for your remarks on this subject.

"

... Thanachart is by definition a weaker bank compared to its competition.

[chiang mai]

Take your pick, there's loads of stuff out there including the bail out of the Islamic Bank resulting from NPL's. L&H is less than a billion and Thanachart, rebadged and much recovered from the days when it was the prime lender that caused the 97 crash, still ranks lowest of all the majors.

http://www.theasianbanker.com/press-releases/bangkok-bank-tops-ab-500-strongest-bank-balance-sheets-ranking-in-thailand

http://www.theasianbanker.com/press-releases/bangkok-bank-tops-ab-500-strongest-bank-balance-sheets-ranking-in-thailand

Take my pick from the two links you provided: they are identical, the report is 9 months old, and it seems none of the banks you mentioned are mentioned in it - possibly because they do not qualify for inclusion based on their size.

As far as the "loads of stuff out there", could you please provide at least one good source. Seems to me at least one ratings agency recently gave Thanachart a rating superior to Bangkok Bank. It's out there - could have been TRIS, Fitch, or Moody's, I forget, but look it up.

Ooops, an edit now as I see you have posted again ...

If we follow your pdf link to the TRIS rating for LH Bank we see that it was given a HIGH rating of A- ... begging the questions: Are you are arguing with yourself? Or are you deliberately trying to deceive your readers.

Have you read the Tris report and what was said!

[chiang mai]

Thank you for this post as your comment below relieves all of us from further concern for your remarks on this subject.

"

... Thanachart is by definition a weaker bank compared to its competition.

You seem to suggest that relative strength is not an appropriate measure, certainly, if I was going to do business with a new bank I would want to know if I was banking with the strongest or the weakest bank.

[chiang mai]

maybe cm.can give more details,thai gov.are issuing 7yr.and 10yr.bonds paying 4.25% and 4.75%.

what the wf.has told me the first lot are for 60yr.olds upwards,then afteropen to anyone,from today.

banks involved,krung thai,kasikorn and scb,there may be another bank. interest paid every 6months.

not sure what the conditions are.

this would suit anyone who needs a bit of interest to top up their pensions,but I think the max.buy is 2million bht.

that's 85,000bht.every 6months for yours and the wifes.x4.25,and 95,000bht at 4.75.

Take a look at the online version of the newspaper that cannot be named, in the Business section is an article called "Savings War", there's an interesting table in the middle of it which is useful.

[meatboy]

thanks cm.its just I have my yearly trans.coming up and as our acc.in the uk.pays .10% [take notice the dot] if its worth it I will put it into the 10yr.bond as a medical heath cover for the wf.as long as its available on request.

I will have a look at the unmentioned.

taffy.

[chiang mai]

thanks cm.its just I have my yearly trans.coming up and as our acc.in the uk.pays .10% [take notice the dot] if its worth it I will put it into the 10yr.bond as a medical heath cover for the wf.as long as its available on request.

I will have a look at the unmentioned.

taffy.

That's actually a really good idea, do you know how you go about buying the government bonds, must it be through a broker?

I'll answer my own question: it's Bangkok Bank and Kasikorn

[yankee99]

maybe cm.can give more details,thai gov.are issuing 7yr.and 10yr.bonds paying 4.25% and 4.75%.

what the wf.has told me the first lot are for 60yr.olds upwards,then afteropen to anyone,from today.

banks involved,krung thai,kasikorn and scb,there may be another bank. interest paid every 6months.

not sure what the conditions are.

this would suit anyone who needs a bit of interest to top up their pensions,but I think the max.buy is 2million bht.

that's 85,000bht.every 6months for yours and the wifes.x4.25,and 95,000bht at 4.75.

That would be 170,000 a year

2,000,000x4.25%=85,000

Are you saying it's 8.5% yearly

[chiang mai]

maybe cm.can give more details,thai gov.are issuing 7yr.and 10yr.bonds paying 4.25% and 4.75%.

what the wf.has told me the first lot are for 60yr.olds upwards,then afteropen to anyone,from today.

banks involved,krung thai,kasikorn and scb,there may be another bank. interest paid every 6months.

not sure what the conditions are.

this would suit anyone who needs a bit of interest to top up their pensions,but I think the max.buy is 2million bht.

that's 85,000bht.every 6months for yours and the wifes.x4.25,and 95,000bht at 4.75.

That would be 170,000 a year

2,000,000x4.25%=85,000

Are you saying it's 8.5% yearly

NO, it's per year!

[yankee99]

maybe cm.can give more details,thai gov.are issuing 7yr.and 10yr.bonds paying 4.25% and 4.75%.

what the wf.has told me the first lot are for 60yr.olds upwards,then afteropen to anyone,from today.

banks involved,krung thai,kasikorn and scb,there may be another bank. interest paid every 6months.

not sure what the conditions are.

this would suit anyone who needs a bit of interest to top up their pensions,but I think the max.buy is 2million bht.

that's 85,000bht.every 6months for yours and the wifes.x4.25,and 95,000bht at 4.75.

That would be 170,000 a year

2,000,000x4.25%=85,000

Are you saying it's 8.5% yearly

NO, it's per year!

Thats what I thought 42,500 every six months.

[chiang mai]

maybe cm.can give more details,thai gov.are issuing 7yr.and 10yr.bonds paying 4.25% and 4.75%.

what the wf.has told me the first lot are for 60yr.olds upwards,then afteropen to anyone,from today.

banks involved,krung thai,kasikorn and scb,there may be another bank. interest paid every 6months.

not sure what the conditions are.

this would suit anyone who needs a bit of interest to top up their pensions,but I think the max.buy is 2million bht.

that's 85,000bht.every 6months for yours and the wifes.x4.25,and 95,000bht at 4.75.

That would be 170,000 a year

2,000,000x4.25%=85,000

Are you saying it's 8.5% yearly

NO, it's per year!

Thats what I thought 42,500 every six months.

The only thing to point out here is that the future direction of interest rates is up not down, hence if you're in a short term strategy the price of the bond on the secondary market will fall - if you intend to hold the bond until maturity, this wont be an issue.

[nong38]

A few posts ago I was telling you to look out for charges on your investments, having read the charges information again the charges apply to the whole fund and not each individual, but, I still think at the 1.82% quoted is hefty. Point of Information.

[meatboy]

maybe cm.can give more details,thai gov.are issuing 7yr.and 10yr.bonds paying 4.25% and 4.75%.

what the wf.has told me the first lot are for 60yr.olds upwards,then afteropen to anyone,from today.

banks involved,krung thai,kasikorn and scb,there may be another bank. interest paid every 6months.

not sure what the conditions are.

this would suit anyone who needs a bit of interest to top up their pensions,but I think the max.buy is 2million bht.

that's 85,000bht.every 6months for yours and the wifes.x4.25,and 95,000bht at 4.75.

That would be 170,000 a year

2,000,000x4.25%=85,000

Are you saying it's 8.5% yearly

NO, it's per year!

Thats what I thought 42,500 every six months.

read it again its 2million for me and the wf. which is 4million in total,thats 85k.for me and the wf.every 6months.170k.yrly.

[meatboy]

I don't know if you've seen the new advert in yesterdays paper[thai] over half a page from scb.bank.

fixed term for 15months. 4% YES 4% that is till you look right at the bottom of the page left hand corner.[might need a magnifying glass.

6months x 2%,6months x 3% and 3months x 4%.which is 2.80% over the term.

this reminds me of one of my wfs friends who came and told her she just got 7% at her bank,she was certain that what she got until the wf.went on line and explained to her what it rearly was,this must happen to quite a lot of Thai's who are not to well up on what they see to what they actually get.

[chiang mai]

Don't everyone rush to Bangkok Bank to try and buy the new bonds, they sold out at 9:20am, twenty minutes after they started selling, I didn't believe it but the guy showed me the head office flyer which was stamped 9:20am.

[meatboy]

Don't everyone rush to Bangkok Bank to try and buy the new bonds, they sold out at 9:20am, twenty minutes after they started selling, I didn't believe it but the guy showed me the head office flyer which was stamped 9:20am.

wouldn't it be interesting to see how many multibles of 2million bhts.worth went tooooooooooo.

not sure but it was 30billions worth on sale.

I saw the the interest-ing table,so a little bit up will do,never one to be greedy.

[chiang mai]

Don't everyone rush to Bangkok Bank to try and buy the new bonds, they sold out at 9:20am, twenty minutes after they started selling, I didn't believe it but the guy showed me the head office flyer which was stamped 9:20am.

wouldn't it be interesting to see how many multibles of 2million bhts.worth went tooooooooooo.

not sure but it was 30billions worth on sale.

I saw the the interest-ing table,so a little bit up will do,never one to be greedy.

If anyone out there has a tame BB bank manager that they are friendly with, it would be useful if you could ask them how to go about buying these in the future, I would guess you have to reserve them in advance.

[meatboy]

Don't everyone rush to Bangkok Bank to try and buy the new bonds, they sold out at 9:20am, twenty minutes after they started selling, I didn't believe it but the guy showed me the head office flyer which was stamped 9:20am.

wouldn't it be interesting to see how many multibles of 2million bhts.worth went tooooooooooo.

not sure but it was 30billions worth on sale.

I saw the the interest-ing table,so a little bit up will do,never one to be greedy.

If anyone out there has a tame BB bank manager that they are friendly with, it would be useful if you could ask them how to go about buying these in the future, I would guess you have to reserve them in advance.

oh well that's me cooked for future bonds,although I still have an account with them its 2yrs.since I used it.

[roberta]

Interest rates in Thailand are much higher than my offshore bank in the UK Channel Islands pays, and if I convert my money into THB it would protect me against future currency exchange movements. This is important to to me as I have substantial savings but no income at all except what I can earn in interest. Protection of capital is paramount, but I have no reason to question the safety of funds on account at Bangkok Bank - or do I? However, in case that, for some unforeseen reason, I would need to remove the money and transfer it to another country I am concerned this may be difficult, or even impossible.

I have heard of something called a foreign exchange certificate, issued when money in foreign currency is brought into Thailand from overseas. I know not how to acquire one of these, nor if it would protect me from the nightmare situation of having to leave Thailand for some reason, but being unable to take my money with me. Can anyone explain the specifics of this, or provide any other details or links which might help me to decide whether I should bring the money here, or not.

Finally, if invested in a Thai bank and earning interest, would the interest be subject to taxation? I am a retired person with no income except for this potential bank interest. It seems unfair to have to pay tax on such a tiny income.

[scooterboy]

I would suggest that you opened a new topic on this subject - rather than use the current thread, which is really about current rates of interest in banks.

Assuming your post gets moved (or maybe not), then I can tell you that I decided to move my foreign capital to Thailand, for much the same reasons that you refer to. Interest rates abroad were (are) at a very low point and I considered it better to pull the plug and relocate my dwindling fortune to Thailand. Transferring sums of 2M Baht, or more, require a foreign exchange certificate, which in turn requires a valid reason for transfer. I'm quite happy about my own decision (as yet, anyway) and am now getting anything from 2.10% to 4.00% depending on the length of deposit time. Perhaps not a lot, but decidedly better than interest rates abroad, where I was getting 0.10%!

It's simple, if you want an FET, then transfer 2M or more. If you can't provide any valid reason, then transfer less than 2M. If you don't want to pay tax, then invest in (for example) fixed account at banks that have tax-free accounts.

There are threads about paying tax and being able to reclaim the tax - look at them.

As far as taking your capital out from Thaiiand, I think the same rules apply - under 2M? then you can transfer. Over 2M and an FET is required (the original one). However, I'm only guessing here. I have no experience with transferring larger sums out of Thailand - and indeed, I certainly have no wish to do so at the present moment.

[KittenKong]

Personally I would be very wary of putting all my eggs in one basket called Thailand, even though they do have a deposit protection scheme. I certainly would never put them all into just one Thai bank. But I'm wary of having my eggs offshore also. My eggs are mostly back onshore in the UK, and are spread about 30/70 stocks/cash, with the cash spread across multiple banks to stay below the 85KGBP deposit protection limit for each. All this is free of UK income tax/CGT as I am non-resident there. Also I own my condo/car here and have a cash buffer here of a year or two's expenditure, plus my retirement extension deposit.

Yes, if you intend staying here forever then changing to THB does have the advantage of removing exchange rate variations from the calculation. But forever may be a long time and a lot can happen.

The FET is provided automatically when you transfer money in. If your bank doesnt give you it, just ask for it. But this is just a bit of paper and does not mean that all currency exports will be permitted in future, no matter what happens to the Thai/world economy.

Yes, your interest would be subject to tax here. You can get this refunded up to a certain amount but presumably your interest would exceed this amount anyway as it is quite small. How much are you talking about? You say you are retired and presumably are from the UK; do you not also get a pension?