FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
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BOT urges banks to ease burden on flood victims

BOT urges banks to ease burden on flood victims

Bank of Thailand (BOT) wrote to commercial banks and other financial institutions on Tuesday (September 10) asking them to ease the burden on flood victims, especially in the North and Northeast, assistant BOT governor Ronnadol Numnonda said.

The central bank will also provide financial institutions with some flexibility when it comes to loan classification for flood victims, he added.
Ronnadol said commercial banks and financial institutions have been told to come up with both direct and indirect measures to help borrowers affected by the recent tropical storms and flooding. “They should consider providing additional loans to their clients for fixing their homes and fixed assets damaged by flooding, so they can continue their businesses. The banks should also reduce the interest or fees, loosen repayment conditions or provide debt-restructuring options,” he said.
“Credit-card operators should also consider lowering the minimum payment requirements for flood victims to less than 10 per cent of their outstanding balance until March 31, 2020,” he said.
The central bank is also allowing commercial banks and other financial institutions to preserve the debt-classification status of their borrowers at the same level as before they were hit by natural disasters, in order to let them be eligible for debt-restructuring or repayment rescheduling schemes.
“Records on outstanding debts of borrowers who have received aid under the abovementioned measures from the end of September to the end of March 2020 must be maintained so they can be verified by BOT later,” the assistant governor said.

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