(Thailand) – Credit rating agency Fitch is not expecting to make big changes to ratings for Thai banks this year citing their continued relatively weak financial positions.Fitch believes that Thai banks still needed to raise billions of dollars in new funds to support their capital and sees sometime yet for banks to restore their profitability.
The firm sees Thai commercial banks needing to raise about US$3.41 billion, based on its loan loss rate assumptions, with further capital raising being needed particularly by weaker banks such as Bank of Ayudhya and Thai Military Bank and to a lesser extent Bank of Asia and Siam Commercial Bank.
The stronger banks are seen to be Bangkok Bank, Thai Farmers Bank and Thai Danu Bank.
Thai banks’ non-performing loans – loans with no revenues for at least three months – stood at 10.50 percent of lending at the end of 2001, compared with a 47 percent peak in mid-1999, although these figures exclude impaired or under-performing loans either written off or restructured into separate management accounts by the banks.