TBA Sees Improvement Of Bad Debts

[Jai Dee]

TBA sees improvement of the bad debts

The Thai Bankers Association (TBA) is still working hard in cutting the amount of bad debts and in preventing loans becoming non-performing.

TBA chairman Khunying Chada Wattanasiritham (ชฎา วัฒนศิริธรรม) said banks will immediately contact clients and help solve their problems if there are signs that the loans can turn to be bad debts.

Khunying Chada said TBA and the Bank of Thailand could initially agree on how non-performing loans (NPLs) should be sold to the Assets Management Corporation (AMC).

She said grade A debts would be sold to AMC for 87% of evaluated prices and the transfer of bad debts to AMC would help reduce NPLs in the banking this year by 500 million baht to 1 billion baht, she said.

Khunying Chada, however, said she was not certain whether banks could reduce bad debts to 2% of the total lending worth 500 billion baht within 2007 as targeted by the central bank given the economic slowdown.

Source: Thaisnews - ประจำวันจันทร์ที่ 26 มิถุนายน 2549