Bt500m boost to fund

The details will be submitted this quarter to the investment committee chaired by the permanent secretary of the Finance Ministry.

The bank appointed MFC Asset Management as the trustee, said Salinee Wangtal, chairwoman of SME Bank.

It will register the fund with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Salinee said. The bank selected 17 small and medium-sized enterprises to invest in the fund.

SME Bank on Monday cut its minimum retail rate to 9.25 per cent from 9.5 per cent and minimum factoring rate to 7.375 per cent from 7.625 per cent to help ease the burden on small businesses that have been battered by the economic slowdown.

The bank left its minimum lending rate at 7 per cent since it had already cut the MLR on March 19. The bank has offered debt rescheduling to affected SMEs so that they can keep their 50,000 employees.

Last month alone, non-performing loans increased by Bt145 million from small businesses, as the long holidays were not supportive of the bank’s efforts to contact the borrowers. The rise in NPLs forced the bank to set aside extra loan-loss provisions, which cut into profits in April.

SME Bank reported net profits of Bt67 million in April and Bt425 million in the first four months, when the bank lent Bt11.15 billion to 5,073 small businesses requiring a credit line of less than Bt15 million.

The bank believes it can achieve its new-loan target of Bt40 billion for this year.