BANGKOK: Thai commercial banks aim to lend 100 billion baht (US$3.19 billion) of soft loans by October to smaller businesses affected by coronavirus outbreaks, a banking group said on Tuesday, as the country deals with a third wave of infections.
The Southeast Asian country’s latest outbreak has accounted for about 80per cent of the country’s total infections and about 90per cent of its deaths.
The loan programme worth 250 billion baht was launched in late April to help small- and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) cope with the impact of the outbreak, which has slowed domestic activity.
The loans will be provided by the central bank through commercial banks.
“Banks are rushing to consider loan requests and expect a jump in lending over the next two weeks,” Payong Srivanich, chairman of the Thai Bankers’ Association, said in a statement.
That will make the group achieve its target of 100 billion baht lending in the first six months of the loan programme.
About 15 billion baht of loans has been approved so far to more than 5,000 SMEs, he added.
The soft loan programme is part of financial support measures approved in March which include another 100 billion baht of a so-called “asset warehousing” scheme to support debtors who are unable to repay loans. []
(US$1 = 31.34 baht)
(Reporting by Satawasin Staporncharnchai; Editing by Orthai Sriring and Ed Davies)
