Bangkok--4 Nov--EXIM BANK
Mr. Pisit Serewiwattana, President of Export-Import Bank of Thailand (EXIM Thailand), revealed that, in the first nine months (January-September) of 2019, the Bank's total outstanding loans amounted to 109,744 million baht, a 13,927 million baht or 14.54% growth year-on-year, comprising 35,378 million baht in trade finance and 74,366 million baht in investment finance. Of the total outstanding loans, 35,969 million baht went to SMEs. A net profit was accordingly recorded at 547 million baht as of the end of September 2019. The Bank's loan approvals contributed to a business turnover of 140,519 million baht, of which 79,248 million baht or 56.40% came from SMEs.
Mr. Pisit further said that, while EXIM Thailand's loan provision was at a growth pace, its NPLs ratio stayed at 4.96% as of the end of September 2019, with NPLs amounting to 5,440 million baht. Allowance for doubtful accounts was 10,539 million baht, a 1,611 million baht increase from the corresponding period of the previous year. Of the total allowance, 7,292 million baht was minimum provisioning requirement by the Bank of Thailand, which represented a ratio of loan loss provision against the regulatory requirement of 144.53%, hence enabling the Bank to maintain a strong financial status.
In serving as an export credit insurance agency to safeguard Thai exporters and investors against risks in their business endeavors overseas, EXIM Thailand has expanded its export credit and investment insurance service for Thai entrepreneurs' business start-up and expansion with confidence in both existing and new frontier markets. In the first nine months of 2019, the Bank recorded 96,772 million baht in export credit and investment insurance business turnover, up by 31,980 million baht year-on-year, and of which 16,420 million baht or 16.97% was SME business turnover.
As of the end of the third quarter of 2019, EXIM Thailand had a total accumulated loan approval amount of 83,432 million baht, with outstanding loans accounting for 42,766 million baht. Of this total, 30,567 million baht was outstanding loans to Thai investment projects in the CLMV (Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Vietnam), a 1,370 million baht increase year-on-year as driven by the consistent economic growth of the CLMV, still a major destination of Thai entrepreneurs' outbound investment. At present, EXIM Thailand has representative offices in Yangon, Vientiane and Phnom Penh, and has been preparing to open another representative office in Vietnam.
In 2019, EXIM Thailand has strived to fill not only the financial gap, but also the network gap, particularly with new frontier markets, and the knowledge base gap. As of the end of September 2019, the Bank has provided training to more than 3,000 entrepreneurs through EXIM Excellence Academy (EXAC) for development of exporters, SMEs in particular, to enhance their competitiveness with a view to increase market share of Thai goods and services firmly and sustainably in global trade of the new era, so that they have knowledge and expertise available for business start-up and expansion," added Mr. Pisit.