The Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC) has approved 32% of its 20 billion baht in emergency lending designed to relieve essential and emergency expenses for households amid the coronavirus crisis.
The 32% approval ratio is equivalent to a lending amount of 7.7 billion baht for 778,654 borrowers from a total of 2.4 million loan applicants, said Somkiat Kimawaha, BAAC's senior executive vice-president.
Those who did not meet the loan criteria were mostly hindered by redundancies in the emergency loan application with Government Savings Bank or had vague workplaces that could not be verified, Mr Somkiat said.
The remaining disbursement is expected to be approved within this year, he said.
The bank's emergency loans have a fixed monthly interest rate of 0.1% and a credit line of up to 10,000 baht per borrower.
The repayment period is stipulated at two years and six months, starting from the borrowing date.
Borrowers don't need any collateral for loan applications, and the grace period of repayment of the principal amount and interest applies to the first six months from the borrowing date.
The BAAC is preparing to launch sales of the Taweesin savings lottery worth a combined 100 billion baht, at 100 baht in face value per unit.
With a three-year deposit term, those who make deposits via bank counters will receive 0.1% annual interest, while those who deposit via the A-Mobile app will receive 0.2%.
The main reason for offering higher deposit interest on A-Mobile is that the bank wants more people to use its app, Mr Somkiat said.