BOT and Trade Chamber plan December Credit Portal after 16 quarters of SME loan decline
Thailand’s planned Credit Portal would let small firms approach up to five lenders for refinancing, with testing due in November
- The Bank of Thailand (BOT) will launch an online SME Credit Portal in December 2026 in response to 16 consecutive quarters of declining loans to small and medium-sized enterprises.
- The portal will function as a marketplace to connect SMEs seeking financing with various lenders, including commercial banks, virtual banks, and non-bank institutions.
- It aims to address high loan rejection rates caused by information gaps, allowing businesses to post funding needs and compare offers to find suitable financing.
- The initiative is part of a broader BOT lending reform plan that also includes a new credit guarantee mechanism and an alternative-data system to improve credit assessments.
The Bank of Thailand (BOT) plans to launch an online SME Credit Portal in December 2026 to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Thailand find suitable financing, following 16 consecutive quarters of contraction in SME lending. The planned platform would bring borrowers and lenders together in a single marketplace, allowing businesses to state their funding needs and proposed terms, compare financing options and connect with interested financial institutions.
Formal credit reaches only 21% of the most efficient SMEs
BOT governor Vitai Ratanakorn said loan rejection rates for SMEs remained high. Even among SMEs ranked in the top 30% for efficiency, only 21% could access formal credit, compared with 61% of large businesses operating at an equivalent level of efficiency.
The BOT has identified gaps in information as a significant barrier to lending. Credit officers may struggle to locate viable businesses or assess potential customers because relevant information is held by individual banks, while SMEs lack effective channels for finding suitable lenders.
The relatively high costs and risks of SME lending compound these difficulties. The BOT’s broader response targets four categories: credit costs associated with potential loan losses, funding costs, operating expenses, and the costs of transactions and accessing credit.
The Credit Portal is one of three measures in the BOT’s lending reform plan, alongside a new credit guarantee mechanism and an alternative-data system, or data bureau.
The planned data bureau would draw on water and electricity payments, tax information and electronic bank statements to make repayment capacity easier to assess for SMEs and traders without regular salaries.
Credit Portal would match businesses with banks and non-bank lenders
The SME Credit Portal is designed to connect viable businesses with commercial banks, virtual banks, state-owned specialised financial institutions and non-bank lenders. Participating lenders would review financing requests, identify potential customers and offer loan terms, with the aim of making matching more appropriate and fairer.
The platform would provide a single place to search for and compare financing, covering new loans, refinancing and invoice financing. Businesses could either place requests on a shared board or approach selected lenders directly, depending on the application type.
For new loans, the SME Credit Portal would display requests on the shared board so interested lenders could contact applicants. For refinancing, businesses could choose and send requests directly to up to five lenders.
Applicants using the SME Credit Portal would not need to upload supporting documents at the outset. Documents would be required only after a lender expressed interest.
The portal’s proposed account arrangements would allow one user to submit and track several applications across multiple businesses. Several users could also submit and monitor applications for the same incorporated business.
The SME Credit Portal would offer mentoring support. Applicants who did not obtain approval would be referred to advisory services to improve their business plans and prepare for another application.
The BOT expects the platform to reduce three types of costs:
- Search costs: The portal would help SMEs and lenders find each other more easily.
- Credit costs: The portal would support risk assessment using alternative information, including water and electricity payments, telecommunications data and deposit records.
- Transaction and customer acquisition costs: The portal would aim to reduce the costs of identity verification and credit bureau checks.
Thai Chamber proposes seven changes to the SME Credit Portal
The SMEs Committee of the Thai Chamber of Commerce and the Board of Trade of Thailand met the BOT on Monday (September 14, 2026) to discuss the platform’s development. The chamber put forward seven recommendations covering data connections, lending assessments, participation and security.
- Connect credit information and simplify applications. The Thai Chamber proposed developing the portal as a gateway linked to the credit bureau for credit checks and scoring, with forms requiring only essential basic information. For individual borrowers, the chamber suggested considering 'Ari Score', the credit-scoring system developed by the credit bureau for the Ministry of Finance.
- Create incentives to participate. The Thai Chamber recommended positive incentives to encourage widespread use of the platform by all participating groups.
- Restore more flexible credit-risk criteria. The Thai Chamber proposed relaxing significant increase in credit risk (SICR) criteria for borrowers classified as special mention (SM). The proposal would restore the more flexible approach used during the Covid-19 crisis in 2020–2022, before new criteria were introduced in 2023.
- Align financial assessments with BOT guidance. The Thai Chamber recommended that assessments of debt-to-equity (D/E) and debt service coverage ratios (DSCR) follow the central bank’s orders and guidelines.
- Begin with a defined pilot group. The Thai Chamber proposed initial testing with the “7 Reinvent Thailand” pilot group associated with the Board of Trade of Thailand and the Federation of Thai Industries, before expanding participation.
- Support financing within supply chains. The Thai Chamber proposed encouraging medium-sized businesses to help smaller firms in their supply chains obtain factoring or invoice financing. Under the proposal, medium-sized companies would certify the smaller firms’ invoices to help improve liquidity among smaller businesses.
- Strengthen protection against scams. The Thai Chamber called for rigorous security measures to prevent fraudsters from using the Credit Portal to deceive borrowers.
November testing planned before the December launch
The BOT plans to invite relevant stakeholders to test the Credit Portal’s readiness in November 2026 and discuss further cooperation before the intended launch in December.
Once development is complete, the BOT plans to work with the Thai Chamber of Commerce, the Thai SME Confederation and financial institutions of all types to bring businesses and lenders onto the platform.
The BOT has received the chamber’s recommendations for use in refining the system. The Thai Chamber is preparing to coordinate business participation in the pilot.
