Kasikornbank loans still performing well
Despite rising interest rates, Kasikornbank's home-loan borrowers who bought houses
from large listed developers have been able to service their loans.
The bank focuses on providing loans to customers of real estate developers that are listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand, said Chatchai Payuhanaveechai, senior vice president of Kasikorn-bank's consumer loans department. "Residential projects by developers who are listed companies are high-quality assets and their customers have high purchasing power. Therefore, this customer group is quite high-quality and carries a low risk for the bank," he said. The bank has financed around 20 real estate projects for listed companies. It has had no non-performing loans involving customers of these companies, he said. Housing loans for customers of listed firms represent 20 per cent of Kasikornbank's total mortgage portfolio. The bank aims to increase this figure to 40 per cent over the next five years. Chatchai said the bank made Bt3.7 billion in new home loans in the first half of the year. It has a target of Bt8 billion for the full year. The bank has no plans to adjust its target and is confident it can boost lending in the second half. About 2.4 per cent of its home loans are non-performing, compared to the expected 2.7 per cent. Separately, Bangkok Bank's executive vice president Ladavan Tanatanit said the bank's real estate lending during the first five months of the year was on target. Although there were several negative factors hampering the economy, the bank's customers had been able to adjust to harder times, he said. The bank's property development loan portfolio in terms of both pre-financing and post-financing is around 11 to 12 per cent of its total loan portfolio. Somruedi Banchongduang The Nation
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