(Thailand) Thailand’s government is looking at merging nine state-run financial institutions later this year in a bid to help them compete with more lucrative private banks.Thai finance minister Suchart Jaovisidha said the government was concerned that smaller banks would be at a disadvantage over the next four to five years because of intensifying competition.
He said upgrading the banks required large investment funds so a better strategy was to “get them married”.
Thai banks are battling a stagnant corporate loan market and are in urgent need of borrowers.
The nine financial institutions produced combined profits of almost 10 billion baht (US$239 million) in Q2. They are: Government Savings Bank, Industrial Finance Corp of Thailand, Small and Medium Enterprise Development Bank of Thailand, Islamic Bank, Secondary Mortgage Corporation, Export-Import Bank of Thailand, Bank of Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives and Small Industrial Finance Corp.