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BANKING
SOMRUEDI BANCHONGDUANG
Siam Commercial Bank significantly missed its corporate loan targets for the first half due to sluggish economic growth and poor investor sentiment.
The bank, the country's third largest, posted loan growth of just 20 billion baht for the first six months of the year, well off its full-year target of 80 to 90 billion in net growth.
Sarunthorn Chutima, a SCB executive vice-president, acknowledged that the loan environment was quite difficult in the first half.
''The bank was able to lend to only a few large corporate firms in the first quarter. Big companies have delayed new investment because of the slowing economy,'' he said.
But SCB believes that it can achieve its full-year target with a recovery in loan demand in the second half.
Mr Sarunthorn said the government's infrastructure megaprojects would help spur private investment growth and demand for credit.
SCB's corporate loan portfolio currently stands at around 250 billion baht. The bank reported outstanding credit advances of 776.3 billion baht at the end of May, compared with 762.27 billion at the end of 2007.
SCB president Kannikar Chalitaporn said the bank was maintaining its loan growth target of 12% to 15% for the full year, or nearly double the 6% to 8% growth projections for the entire banking industry.
She said the bank met its targets for retail loan growth in the first half, and that historically, loan demand picked up in the latter half of the year, particularly for mortgage loans.
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