The Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC) is conducting a fresh loan review in preparation for adverse effects stemming from the prolonged pandemic.
The bank's previous loan review was conducted before the latest succession of Covid-19 infections emerged in Thailand, said Kasarb Ngernruang, senior executive vice-president at BAAC.
The previous loan review covered 87% of the BAAC's customer base of 7.5 million.
The survey revealed 23% of customers surveyed were classified as being in the green zone, which provides an indication of normal debt-servicing ability. Some 61% of customers participating in the survey fell within the yellow zone, which indicates an overdue loan payment of at least 15 months. The remaining 16% of customers surveyed fell within the red zone, which meant a write-off of bad debts had to be made.
With regard to the spread of Covid-19 infections in Samut Sakhon province, Mr Kasarb said the BAAC has not been significantly affected by this situation as the bank does not have many customers in the province.
The BAAC has a loan target of 155 billion baht and a value of loan growth of 73.5 billion for fiscal 2020-21, which will lapse on March 2021.
He said the bank has grown its loan value by about 50 billion baht, or 4% of total outstanding loans. The bank will attempt to maintain the non-performing loan (NPL) ratio at 4% of total outstanding loans going forward, he said.
BAAC has implemented assistance programmes to help reduce customers' financial burden and prevent loans from becoming NPLs, he said.