State-owned GH Bank aims to extend 203 billion baht in mortgages this year, up 7% from last year's target, and lower its bad-loan ratio to 4.02%.
The bank extended 242 billion baht in housing loans last year, surpassing the target by 13% and marking 8.3% growth from a year earlier, said president Chatchai Sirilai.
"Last year GH Bank's lending exceeded the 200-billion-baht threshold for the first time, thanks to the low-rate mortgage scheme for low-income earners," Mr Chatchai said. "Around 60% of lending was extended to those who borrowed up to 2 million baht a year."
The state-controlled mortgage lender last year extended housing loans to 173,000 accounts, with 105,000 accounts borrowing up to 2 million baht from the bank.
"The ratio of those borrowing 2 million baht rose by 6.29 percentage points from the previous year," Mr Chatchai said.
The bank's non-performing loan ratio inched lower to 4.17% of total loans at the end of last year from 4.21% at the end of 2017, due to priority assistance measures for customers.
GH Bank's net profit amounted to 12.6 billion baht in 2018, a bit higher than targeted, Mr Chatchai said.
At the end of 2018, the bank's loans outstanding surged by 9% to 1.12 trillion baht. Total deposits rose nearly 10% to 943 billion.
The bank's capital adequacy ratio at the end of 2018 stood at 14.2%, well above the central bank's minimum requirement of 8.5% of risk-weighted assets.
Mr Chatchai said GH Bank's target for digital financial services is at least 40% of total transactions this year, and the bank will push the second phase of the mobile app, which will integrate all services in smartphones.
Mortgage borrowers who sought 40 billion baht out of the 50 billion available under the special mortgage scheme for homes priced up to 1 million baht are estimated to meet the bank's criteria, he said, noting that GH Bank will gather data from those who fail to get the cheap mortgages and submit the information to the government to explore further measures later.
The cheap housing loan scheme received 127,000 applicants. Of the total, 113,000 were those earning below 25,000 baht a month, and the remainder had a monthly income above 25,000 baht.
To meet demand, the bank has proposed the Finance Ministry tweak the cheap loan proportion for those with a monthly income of up to 25,000 baht to 40 billion baht and those earning above the threshold to 10 billion.
The 50-billion-baht mortgage scheme is set to extend 30 billion baht to those earning up to 25,000 baht a month and the remaining 20 billion to those earning above 25,000 baht.