Briefs

The Thai Bankers’ Association is ready to step up its efforts to improve financial services to individual customers.
Under the Service Level Agreement (SLA), all banks announced new standards regarding loan extensions, deposit acceptance, electronic transactions and handling of complaints.
From next month, cross-bank practices will be implemented, according to Kobsak Duangdee, secretary-general of the association. At the end of December, a single set of SLA practices will be enforced across the banking sector.

NBTC LICENCE RECEIPTS TOTAL BT18.33 BN

The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission has calculated the amount of licence-fee and related payments it will forward to the Finance Ministry.
The commission will deliver the third instalment of upfront licence fees for 22 TV digital channels, the first instalment for a licence to the 900-megahertz telecom frequency, and relevant fines for a total of Bt18.33 billion to the Finance Ministry, said Takorn Tantasith, secretary-general of the NBTC.
Of the total contribution, Bt8.89 billion is from the TV licence instalments and fines for overdue payments and Bt8.60 billion from Advanced Wireless Network’s first instalment on its upfront fee for the 900MHz licence.
A total of Bt644 million comes from seizure of Jas Mobile Broadband Co’s bank guarantee and Bt196.65 million from additional compensation in connection to its telecom-licence forfeiture.

SME Bank expedites policy loans

The Small and Medium Enterprise Development Bank is expediting its extension of policy loans bearing an interest rate of 4 per cent as a way to assist small businesses.
The five-year loans will be extended until the end of this year or until the limit of Bt2.8 billion is reached.

Project launches set for H2

Listed property firms Pruksa Real Estate, AP (Thailand) and LPN Development will launch a total of 18 new residential projects worth Bt23.7 billion in the second half of this year.
Pruksa plans to launch six condominium projects worth Bt10.8 billion, AP (Thailand) will launch six detached-housing projects Bt5.9 billion, and LPN Development will launch six condominium projects worth Bt7 billion.