(Thailand) – Thai banks are reporting their best quarterly financials in five years driven largely by higher margins, rising non-interest income and rapidly dropping loan provisioning.However, all is not rosy with a market pool of liquidity that’s not ready nor willing to risk lending, a remaining sizeable bad loan burden and growing competition also continue to limit improvements.
Krung Thai has reported a net profit of 2.5 billion baht (US$57.7 million) for 2002’s first quarter, a climb of 13 percent over the previous year. Number three bank, Thai Farmers, has produced a first quarter profit of 1.92 billion baht, up from the mere 59 million baht result in the 2001 quarter.
DBS Thai Danu Bank DTDB, Thailand’s eighth largest bank, has come in with a net profit of 59.7 million baht in its first quarter of 2002, a 81 percent jump year on year.
Bangkok Bank, however, has come in with a first quarter net profit of 1.6 billion baht, just below the 1.8 billion profit in the same period last year, with another of the commercial banks, Siam Commercial Bank in at a net profit of 327 million baht, down from 559 million baht in the first quarter of 2001.