Thanachart to focus more on used-car loans
Thanachart Bank will raise the proportion of its lending for used cars from 19 per cent this year to 25 per cent, given their better margin than new cars.
The bank, market leader in auto hire-purchase loans, has set its target for growth of such loans at 5 per cent next year, deputy managing director Bandit Cheevatha-narak said yesterday. He predicted that auto sales would rise 3 per cent from 720,000 units this year because of lingering demand, despite high oil prices. While the bank's policy is to extend hire-purchase loans to cover all auto brands, the main ones - Toyota, Isuzu, Honda and Nissan - will account for 80 per cent of its portfolio, Bandit said. The bank's net interest spread between deposits and hire-purchase loans in 2007 will exceed 3 per cent on anticipation that the domestic interest rate will decline by 0.25 per cent, he added. Bandit said the bank would concentrate on offering excellent services and forging alliances with car dealerships nationwide. For the first nine months of this year, the bank saw its net profit jump from Bt179.6 million in the same period last year to Bt250.81 million.
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