Bangkok--5 Jul--Comptroller General's Department
4 July 2011 - The Comptroller General's Department, the Ministry of Finance and Thai commercial banks signed a memorandum of understanding over the provision of secured loans with inherited pension as collateral to give inherited pensioners opportunities to obtain new funds from 13 leading commercial banks without relying on sources outside the financial system.
Presiding over the signing ceremony was Mr. Areepong Bhoo-chaoom, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance. "Today, there are large numbers of pensioners who do not have the means to obtain financial support for further investments," said Mr. Areepong. "The use of pension as collateral for a secured loan enables pensioners to gain access to additional funds that will drive their businesses and sustain their lives, and it has the extra benefit of reducing reliance on illegal loans."
This new initiative has the full backing of 13 Thai commercial banks, including Bangkok Bank PCL, Krung Thai Bank PCL, Kasikornbank PCL, TMB Bank PCL, Thai Credit Retail Bank PCL, Siam Commercial Bank PCL, Siam City Bank PCL, SME Bank of Thailand, Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Co-Operatives, Land and Houses Retail Bank PCL, Government Savings Bank, Government Housing Bank and Islamic Bank of Thailand. Each bank offers a variety of different terms for interested borrowers.
Rangsan Sriworasard, Director-General of the Comptroller General's Department, explained the requirements for obtaining an inherited pension-secured loan: "The borrower must provide documents as evidence of her pension inheritance with proof of the pensioner's approval. The documents must name an inheritor who is not the parents, spouse or children of the pensioner. While the pensioner is alive, only her parents, spouse or children will have the rights to obtain her pension, and the stated inheritor cannot do so as long as any of them still lives."
In requesting a secured loan with inherited pension as collateral, the borrower must carefully examine the circumstances. Once the request has been approved and recorded into the pension collateral database, the pension will no longer be available to the borrower.
To request the loan, the borrower must fill out a request form and approve the repayment of the loan through pension deduction. The administrative unit responsible for providing the loan will verify the information submitted by the borrower, create a new record in the system and issue documents required for the loan proposal. The borrower can only choose to take out a loan from one commercial bank, and the outstanding loan must be repaid in full first if the borrower wishes to take out another loan. After examining the borrower's records, the bank will decide whether or not to approve the loan. Once approved, the sum granted to the borrower can be recalled if the borrower fails to meet the terms of the loan contract, lacks the pension funds required for loan repayment or passes away prior to full repayment of the loan. In these cases, the Comptroller General's Department will handle the repayment of the loan using the collateral pension fund, and any remaining sum from the fund will be transferred to the pensioner's relatives or inheritors.
For more information on inherited pension-secured loans, please contact government organizations in contact with the Comptroller General's Department, the Department's own call center at 0-2270-6400 or provincial offices of the Department.