BANGKOK, Aug 24 (TNA) — The Bank of Thailand (BoT) has confirmed that all commercial banks in the country are financially strong.
In response to an economist’s warning that Thai commercial banks were suffering from economic problems, Ronadol Numnonda, BoT’s deputy governor for financial institutions stability, said the operations and funds of all commercial banks remained strong and could cope well with the economic problems that resulted from the coronavirus disease 2019.
Since early 2020, the excess reserves of commercial banks were huge thanks to a strict provision policy implemented over the past years. As of June 2020, the capital ratio of commercial banks was as high as 19.2%. Besides, the banks continued to post profits and have high liquidity, he said.
In addition, commercial banks already conducted stress tests which confirmed that they had considerable funds and could cope with crises.
Meanwhile, the government and BoT issued swift monetary and financial measures to relieve the impacts of COVID-19 on people and businesses. As a result, affected people and businesses were able to repay their debts as usual, Mr Ronadol said.
BoT and financial institutions were cooperating closely on helping debtors and restructuring their debts and thus commercial banks could limit their non-performing loans, he said.
BoT assured that Thai commercial banks remained strong and were able to cope with the economic impacts of COVID-19. (TNA)
