Govt settles over 50,000 loan shark cases worth 1.8 billion baht

The Finance Ministry and its partners have helped a total of 50,980 non-banking debtors saddled with illegally high interest rates refinance their debts so far, a senior official said on Saturday.

Pornchai Teeravej, director general of the Fiscal Policy Office (FPO), said that after the government stepped in to help holders of non-banking loans settle their debts, the ministry’s special banks and private partners had approved refinancing worth 1.8 billion baht.

The operation started on December 1, 2023, and as of Thursday this week, 50,980 debtors have refinanced their loans from non-banking creditors, Pornchai said.

The government’s banks that joined the refinancing programmes were the Government Savings Bank and the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives. They have been running special campaigns to help loan sharks’ victims, including a project for repaying non-banking loans, and a revolving fund for poor farmers.

Pornchai said the ministry has also persuaded many non-banking creditors to register as pico-finance (microfinance) firms that are allowed to charge no more than 36% interest per annum. So far, 1,148 operators have been approved to provide loans in 75 provinces.

The FPO reported that as of November 2024, these pico-finance firms had provided loans in 4,840,118 accounts worth some 46.98 billion baht.

To apply for a pico-finance licence, contact hotline 1359 or visit www.1359.go.th.