More than 16,500 victims of loan sharks helped by Finance Ministry
Ministry has helped debtors refinance their loans with non-banking creditors
The Finance Ministry and its partners have helped a total of 16,593 non-banking debtors saddled with illegally high interest rates refinance their debts so far, a senior official said on Sunday.
Pornchai Teeravej, director general of the Fiscal Policy Office (FPO), said that after the government stepped in to help debtors of non-banking loans settle their debt, the ministry’s special banks and private partners had approved refinancing worth 783.13 million baht.
The operation started on December 1 and as of August 14, 16,593 debtors have refinanced their loans with non-banking creditors, Pornchai said.
The government’s banks that have joined the refinancing programmes were Government Savings Bank and the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives.
Pornchai said the government has also implemented several projects to help loan sharks’ victims, including a loan project for repaying non-banking loans, and a revolving fund to help poor farmers.
On August 2 alone, Pornchai said 738 debtors entered the refinancing programme.
He added that the ministry has also persuaded many non-banking creditors to register as pico-finance firms that are allowed to charge no more than 36% interest per annum.
