Bank lending in contemporary Thailand

The nature of the Thai banking system in the pre-crisis era has been of great interest in the aftermath of Thailand’s 1997 financial crisis. Scores of studies have put great emphasis on the factors contributing to the crisis. There has been scant prior research on how Thai banks operate in practice since the crisis and the researcher was interested in better understanding this, particularly how the banks deal with information-related problems. The main objective of the research is to give an insight into the actions that Thai bankers carry out and how their activities are perceived by corporate borrowers, auditors, regulators and the bankers themselves. In dealing with informational problems, Thai banks employ screening techniques, collateral requirements, loan covenants, monitoring, and their relationships with borrowers in an attempt to mitigate the costs of both adverse selection and moral hazard problems. The study finds that there have been significant improvements in the banking system which has made Thai banks more compliant with internationally accepted lending practice. However, there is still room for further studies on how to create incentives to improve financial disclosure among small and medium enterprises (SMEs), how to establish sound corporate governance of banks, and how to minimise political interference in Thai state-owned banks.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo