Banks set up programmes to help victims of flood disaster

Bangkok Bank has set aside Bt5 billion for special loans to help SMEs. Each affected customer can ask for a maximum loan of Bt20 million at an interest rate of 5 per cent in the first year and MLR for the following years.
For corporate customers, the bank will relax debt-repayment conditions, reduce interest rates and offer refinancing and special liquidity loans.
Retail customers can also get lower interest rates, refinancing loans and home-repair loans. The additional loans will carry a special interest rate of 5 per cent for the first year and minimum retail rate for the following years, with repayment stretched to a maximum of five years.

The Government Housing Bank is bracing for the worst-case scenario of partial inundation of Bangkok.

Woravit Chailimpamontri, president of GH Bank, said yesterday that sandbag and concrete barriers had been put up to protect its head office on Rama IX Road and 12 branches in districts prone to flash floods.
It will allow its mortgage borrowers hit by floods to delay loan payments by up to four months. Flood victims should contact the bank within one month after being affected, he said.
The Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives yesterday opened a kitchen in a park close to Ayutthaya’s government complex that can prepare 2,000 free meals a day, according to bank staff. Flood victims can reach the kitchen by calling (081) 443 2309 or 921 4594.
The Government Savings Bank is making available Bt300,000 home-repair loans with repayment over five years for flood victims. The interest rate is set at 3.45 per cent in the first three years and the minimum lending rate (MLR) minus 0.5 percentage point in the fourth and fifth years.
Mortgage borrowers can defer their principal and interest payments by up to six months. New loans are also available for people and small businesses affected by the floods.
Kannikar Chalitarporn, president of Siam Commercial Bank, said about 500 retail customers and 60 businesspeople, mostly in the Central and Northern regions, had asked for the bank’s assistance.
Residences and commercial buildings were struck, while the flood has disrupted |the operations of supply-chain companies in industrial estates. Mortgage customers and small businesses can ask the bank to freeze principal and interest payments by up to six months. The bank will give extra loans to customers needing to repair their residences at a maximum of 120 per cent of the appraised asset value, which will be deducted from existing debt.
Customers with auto, credit-card or personal loans can ask for a three-month waiver of principal and interest payments.
The bank will freeze repayment of principal for small and medium-sized enterprises for up to 12 months and freeze repayment of principal and interest for three months, which can be extended to six months. Customers can extend debt repayment by a maximum of 12 months.
Overdraft or working-capital loans at a maximum of 20 per cent of total working-capital credit, or Bt10 million, and increased special working-capital loans to replenish liquidity are also provided to flood-affected SMEs.