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Credit-card issuers plan to press the central bank to cut the minimum monthly repayment to 5 per cent from the present 10 per cent in a bid to prevent bad loans from increasing.

They say that customers are under financial pressure due to the sharp rise in the cost of living.

However, Bank of Thailand (BOT) assistant governor Krirk Vanikkul said yesterday that the central bank will have to consider the reasons put forward by the card issuers to determine how much the NPLs may increase if the minimum repayment is unchanged.

"The BOT won't consider helping only the card-issuers, but rather the cardholders, too. Once the minimum repayment is reduced, cardholders may not fully benefit from it, because they will then face a longer repayment period and end up paying more interest," Krirk said.

Without authorisation from the central bank, card issuers cannot reduce the minimum monthly payment. Last year, the BOT raised the minimum payment to 10 per cent from 5 per cent.

Bangkok Bank's Credit Card Division manager, Choke na Ranong, who is also president of the Credit Cards Club, said the club would collect details about the impact on customers after the minimum repayment was raised.

He said it would take around one month to gather the information before putting a proposal to the BOT.

He said the economy is slowing down, while the cost of living is rising. This may cause the number of non-performing loans to rise.

"Three or four credit-card providers are afraid that NPLs will increase. Cardholders' spending power has fallen and they may not be able to pay the 10-per-cent minimum payment as set by the BOT. So they want the BOT to revert to the 5-per-cent minimum repayment," Choke said.

The Credit Cards Club president said it was difficult for card issuers to meet their customer-base targets because they have had to tighten their approval procedures. However, there have been no target revisions and more promotions are planned.

In addition, the club is to ask the BOT to raise the interest-rate ceiling on credit cards, which is now fixed at 20 per cent because card providers' costs have increased. They want the BOT to allow free competition.

Meanwhile, shops that accept MasterCards issued abroad will be charged higher fees than on MasterCards issued here, according to a rule MasterCard has implemented worldwide.