Thai Banks Will Not Yet Merge With Foreign Groups

[Jai Dee]

BOT GOVERNOR CONFIDENT LARGE THAI BANKS WILL NOT YET MERGE WITH FOREIGN GROUPS

Bank of Thailand Governor Mom Ratchawong Pridiyathorn Thewakul (ปรีดิยาธร เทวกุล) is confident large Thai commercial banks will not yet merge with foreign capital groups, as their financial status was still solid.

The central bank governor spoke on negotiations between Thai commercial banks and their foreign partner regarding the latter’s increase of stakes in the former. He explained that large commercial banks have not asked for approval in bringing a vast amount of money in to use for a merging process, thus they have yet to merge.

He also saw profits in every bank's operation, which is expected to proceed well over the next 3 years.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 31 January 2006

[OldAsiaHand]

Ah yes, the monthly rerun of 'We Don't Need No Stinkin' Foreigners.'

Every Thai bank is profitable. Every Thai bank is happy. Every Thai bank is an international powerhouse just waiting to blossom. Thais can stand against the world!

(mostly because the world doesn't give a flip)

[britainmal]

They don't make any sense. During the FTA talks the Thai government said that the Banking sector is weak and will take 20 years to be economically strong. Now , they are saying they are already economically, sounds Just like another sign of fear of foreigner sickness.

[Rinrada]

Non Performing Loans.....No ...we dont talk about them..do we

[steveromagnino]

Non Performing Loans.....No ...we dont talk about them..do we

Well, mostly they do talk about them for a bit anyway :-)

AFAIK the financial masterplan took into account that the NPLs were a burden on the Thai banking sector, and therefore the sector had to be protected until these washed through. Fair enough.

However, given the speculation about BAY I would not be surprised to see a foreign bank and financier such as GE coming here at some point and getting into some sort of cosy arrangement. perhaps this comment is somehow in relation to that speculation.

I don't see this we don't need the stinking foreigner bit, but obviously, I have not been on this board long enough to see the hidden meaning of every press release that comes out.

Although I will point out that based on the skytrain trip I make some days, the phrase stinking foreigner does seem somewhat fitting sometimes.... hmmm...

[Heng]

I don't see this we don't need the stinking foreigner bit, but obviously, I have not been on this board long enough to see the hidden meaning of every press release that comes out.

[Rinrada]

I would not be surprised to see a foreign bank and financier such as GE coming here at some point and getting into some sort of cosy arrangement. perhaps this comment is somehow in relation to that speculation.

Bank of Asia was Thai owned one minute and then the next it was bought out ...100% by ABN (got an a/c in the Dam) The Government then changed the rules on Names of Banks and ABM flogged it to I believe a Malaysian outfit and made a nice BIG profit....others also......

Its been done before and probably will be again

[britainmal]

Although I will point out that based on the skytrain trip I make some days, the phrase stinking foreigner does seem somewhat fitting sometimes.... hmmm...

<snip> Anti-Thai comment deleted by Moderator.

You also seem to forget China has allowed foreigners to buy their bank debits' and has not made a big deal out of it.

[steveromagnino]

Although I will point out that based on the skytrain trip I make some days, the phrase stinking foreigner does seem somewhat fitting sometimes.... hmmm...

<snip> Anti-Thai comment deleted by Moderator.

You also seem to forget China has allowed foreigners to buy their bank debits' and has not made a big deal out of it.

Sorry I missed your other comment; given the vast number of pretty strongly worded attacks on Thai men which people seem to be able to make at will in other threads, you must have caught a moderator on a bad day and so I will assume you have been hard done by... sorry 'bout that!

Anyway... maybe there was something contextual that has been lost, but I don't think I have forgotten anything; haven't made much comment about selling off debt, NPLs or otherwise; just merely repeating the BOT's stand on the deregulation of the banking industry here and allowing foreign banks to come in and open up full retail networks; as it stands now they can only open 1 branch I think it is. However they can come in for some sectors, such as hire purchase, commercial loans (of course) and you have HSBC, Citibank and some others quite active in other areas, so it is somewhat open in some ways now.

Right after the crash, the foreign financial institutions come through here and picked up debt well cheap, then have repackaged and sold it off; so it isn't like it hasn't already happened with foreign owned debt.

I spend this morning with one of the Thai bank guys, and AFAIU he was saying that there isn't anything stopping a foreign bank coming in and doing a BAY / GE type deal now, although that not being his bank he couldnt' confirm if it was true or not; sad really because I;d like to make a few Yingluck style transactions of my own :-)

There are enough threads here on Thaivisa to back me up regarding some foreigners' personal hygiene here; it was meant as a joke with at least some element of truth behind it, but if you do not see it as such, then I apologise for offending.

[OldAsiaHand]

How in the world did we get from my we-don't-need-no-stinking-foreigners comment to an unnecessarily detailed discussion of personal hygiene and its relative racial application, if any?

I was referring to the famous line from the Wild Bunch: "Badges? Badges? We don't need no stinkin' badges!"

You bunch of illiterates......

[steveromagnino]

How in the world did we get from my we-don't-need-no-stinking-foreigners comment to an unnecessarily detailed discussion of personal hygiene and its relative racial application, if any?

I was referring to the famous line from the Wild Bunch: "Badges? Badges? We don't need no stinkin' badges!"

You bunch of illiterates......

Sorry OldAsiaHand - I get called out on something, and my Thainess means I must save face and respond

What is Wild Bunch? A film? A book? Forgive my ignorance, me stupid

[OldAsiaHand]

It was an American film released in the late 60's, now considered the grandfather of the whole adventure, violence genre of movies. Starring William Holden and Ernest Borgnine. Written and directed by Sam Peckinpah. Look for a tape or disk the next time you're in a movie watching mood. You won't regret it. One of the truly great films of all time.

[LaoPo]

BOT GOVERNOR CONFIDENT LARGE THAI BANKS WILL NOT YET MERGE WITH FOREIGN GROUPS

Bank of Thailand Governor Mom Ratchawong Pridiyathorn Thewakul (ปรีดิยาธร เทวกุล) is confident large Thai commercial banks will not yet merge with foreign capital groups, as their financial status was still solid.

The central bank governor spoke on negotiations between Thai commercial banks and their foreign partner regarding the latter’s increase of stakes in the former. He explained that large commercial banks have not asked for approval in bringing a vast amount of money in to use for a merging process, thus they have yet to merge.

He also saw profits in every bank's operation, which is expected to proceed well over the next 3 years.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 31 January 2006

See above: "YET"

In banking terms this means that there ARE merger-talks going on...BUT the unrest with the sale of the PM's companies as well as the upcoming 4th of Feb. would only put more unrest into the country....so, they keep it cool.

It soon will become a fact; no doubt in my mind.

There is no single (smaller country) bank in the world right now which can survive, for a longer period of time, without the merger/help of very BIG BROTHERS' banks.

Even the Chinese know this and allow bigger banks to have a stake in some of their banks (and thus can have a look in the kitchen of the big banks )

LaoPo

[steveromagnino]

See above: "YET"

In banking terms this means that there ARE merger-talks going on...BUT the unrest with the sale of the PM's companies as well as the upcoming 4th of Feb. would only put more unrest into the country....so, they keep it cool.

It soon will become a fact; no doubt in my mind.

There is no single (smaller country) bank in the world right now which can survive, for a longer period of time, without the merger/help of very BIG BROTHERS' banks.

Even the Chinese know this and allow bigger banks to have a stake in some of their banks (and thus can have a look in the kitchen of the big banks )

LaoPo

Good point; AFAIK this is directly related to the GE BAY discussions going on; hadn't thought about the unrest angle, but that is probably right.

Regarding smaller country banks, I am not so sure for retail banking anyway for the customers.... There is one bank in New Zealand which is tiny called TSB, and all the rest are either foreign or the one set up at great cost by the idiotic government so that the foreign banks could dump their loser customers to the 'people's bank'. TSB has rated the highest in customer satisfaction in every bank survey since 1999 - 2005. They have a better call centre, fewer fees, highly competitive interest rates and that's why their customers like them. Incidentally, the 2nd bank, at least when I worked in banking was another tiny bank called BankDirect, which was a stand alone business unit of a major banking giant who launched it as their intrapreneurial project; it also was more cost efficient and thus had lower fees and so on compared to the giants, because it was started up from scratch, rather than built on the traditional way of doing things. The biggest banks (all foreign) are pretty much all disliked and rate fairly poorly on most aspects of what they do, particularly costs and service.

In fact, the foreign banks have to date moved most of their offices offshore, reduced service staff, increased fees, have higher interest rates for mortgages, and lowered rates for deposits and higher fees. Many were sold off at bargain basement prices to foreigners or bailed out by the government then sold off. They have cut back on services and can afford to operate their little cartel of banks without major threat as some have set up tiny ill thought out internet only subsidiaries to compete around the fringes and now know that getting someone to change banks is very very hard unless at a moment of truth like getting a homeloan. Not surprisingly, they tend to lose business at that time, and run with lower margins because most of them have to use mortgage brokers to do their marketing for them, since so many are so widely disliked and can't market themselves because they are so out of touch with the marketplace.

That said, some foreign ownership is going to be good, although it isn't like it isn't here already with SC, Citibank, BofA, KCC and so on. Several formerly finance or banking products such as HP are already widely open to competition from foreign operators.... banking service here is bad, but it is pretty bad most places.

And in terms of margin, perhaps shareholders of these big banking giants do much better. Their customers certainly don't.

I know nothing about commercial banking; if you can walk me through the benefits for these massive banking giants, I'd be fascinated to learn

[britainmal]

I don't know why the moderator delated my entry because it was not offensive. I was taking about Thai food which has a strong oder which you can smell when you are walking down the streets. I know a lot of Thai food is made up of seafood dishes, which have a strong oder. For example Som Dtam-this does not smell so nice.

[steveromagnino]

I don't know why the moderator delated my entry because it was not offensive. I was taking about Thai food which has a strong oder which you can smell when you are walking down the streets. I know a lot of Thai food is made up of seafood dishes, which have a strong oder. For example Som Dtam-this does not smell so nice.

well in that case, my apologies for missing it, and I must say I was surprised to see something edited from you, because your other posts are generally a mix of humour, astute observation and useful information. I assumed it was offensive, and I was wrong! Sorry!

So... you like the smell of the sewers as well? that can be quite strong...although I am not sure 'sewer, we don't need no stinkin sewer' works that well