The state-owned Government Savings Bank (GSB) has launched a low-interest loan aimed at relieving flood-hit small and medium-sized enterprise (SME), microentrepreneur customers and mortgage debtors.
President and chief executive Woravit Chailimpamontri said the special rate loan with a maximum five-year term carries 2% minus the minimum lending rate (MLR).
GSB's MLR now stands at 7%.
SME customers are eligible to borrow the low-rate loans, but any new lending amount plus existing loans must not exceed the maximum credit line stated in the existing contracts or 500,000 baht per account.
Microentrepreneur customers are allowed to borrow no more than 20% of the existing contracts or 100,000 baht each.
GSB's mortgage borrowers hit by the current flooding can borrow no more than 10% of their existing contracts or 300,000 baht per account.
Relief loans carry a fixed rate of 4.5% throughout the five-year maturity.
Flood victims who are not existing GSB existing borrowers are also eligible to secure the special-rate loans.
Kasikornbank (KBank) is also offering relief for flood-hit customers in 27 provinces by reducing monthly instalment payments plus interest and postponing the principal on repayments in order to help increase customer liquidity.
Those severely affected by the floods may apply for new loans to help restore their businesses.
Interested customers can apply to participate this month, said KBank.
For K-Home Loan customers, KBank will reduce monthly instalment payments by up to 40%, or customers can choose to service only the interest for six months.
Additionally, KBank now offers a new credit limit for home renovations, up to 100% of the current home loan limit that has been paid, with up to 15 years for credit terms.
K-Credit Card and K-Express Cash customers affected by the floods can have their annual interest rate halved for a period of three monthly statements.
For SME and large corporate customers, KBank has formulated a set of assistance measures. They can choose to pay only interest for three months to assure some measure of business liquidity.
As well, customers with credit limits under international trade financing or promissory notes can also choose to pay only interest for three months.