Loan rush at Money Expo
THE SMALL AND Medium Enterprise Development Bank of Thailand estimates small and medium-sized enterprise loan applications through state-owned banks at Money Expo on the weekend reached Bt8 billion.
Up to 70 per cent of the applications, or Bt5.4 billion, will be approved, SME Bank president Supot Arevart said.
He said on the first day of the expo, held in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Rayong, Udon Thani, and Hat Yai in Songkhla, there were loan applications worth Bt3 billion.
Supot said the businesses applying for loans came from sectors that included retail, wholesale, logistics and agriculture processing food.
They applied for loans worth between Bt1 million and Bt5 million.
The event is a part of the government’s effort to provide policy loans worth Bt15 billion to SMEs with an interest rate of only four per cent.
Fifty per cent of the applications came from SMEs located in the Northeast and 40 per cent of the applicants are based in the North.
Money Expo was conducted by eight state-owned banks: the Government Savings Bank, SME Bank, the Government Housing Bank, the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Co-operatives, the Islamic Bank of Thailand, the Export-Import Bank of Thailand, the Thai Credit Guarantee Corporation and the Secondary Mortgage Corporation.
The aim of the loans is to support SMEs and micro-businesses in a bid to boost the economy in the second half of the year.
“After the launch of the Bt15 billion policy loan campaign with |an interest rate of four per cent at Money Expo … we believe that |the policy loans will be approved for the SMEs before the end of July this year, which is faster than early estimates of the end of this year,” Supot said.
Wichet Warakul, Thai Credit Guarantee Corporation (TCG) senior executive vice president, said loan approvals of no more than Bt1 million from Money Expo would receive a credit guarantee from TCG.
“We estimate the credit guarantee will be worth about Bt1.2 billion, or about 1,200 SMEs will get a credit guarantee from this expo,” Wichet said.
The move is part of the TCG’s business plan to guarantee loans worth up to Bt80 billion this year, he said.
Wichet said that after the loans from the expo were approved, it would take TCG only three days to guarantee them.
