GSB begins transferring more than 11 billion baht in bad debt to ARI-AMC

GSB begins transferring NPLs to ARI-AMC, more than 130,000 accounts, with a credit line of 11 billion baht. Mr. Vitai Ratanakorn, President of the Government Savings Bank, revealed that according to the government's policy to solve the debt problem throughout the system and assigned the Government Savings Bank to establish Ari Asset Management Co., Ltd. (ARI-AMC) by joint venture with Bangkok Commercial Asset Management PCL (BAM), which recently received a license to operate as an asset management company from the Bank of Thailand on September 30, 2024, the Government Savings Bank has transferred NPLs to ARI-AMC to enter the debt restructuring process or debt mediation with more relaxed conditions. The first debt transfer is more than 130,000 accounts, with a credit limit of 11 billion baht, both secured and unsecured loans, and debtors have 1 account per person, which will help debtors escape from bad credit history more easily, return to normal debt payment status or close debt accounts, will allow them t o access credit in the system in the future and reduce their reliance on informal debt. Importantly, it is also a solution to household debt problems in accordance with the government's policy. and positively affect the overall economic situation of the country . The bank will transfer debts two more times by early 2025, which is expected to help a total of more than 400,000 debtor accounts, with a principal value of more than 30 billion baht. ARI-AMC was established as a joint venture between Government Savings Bank and BAM. Its objective is to be a social enterprise to purchase bad debts from state financial institutions. It has a registered capital of 1 billion baht, with a joint venture ratio of 50:50, and an operating period of no more than 15 years. In the first phase, ARI-AMC will purchase non-performing assets from Government Savings Bank, which are general loans with or without collateral, which are the group of retail debtors, SMEs, including credit card debt, cash cards that are in the status of bad debt, bad debt, and NPA with a period of 1 year or more, with a debt balance not exceeding 20 million baht, covering debts that have not yet been prosecuted and debts that have been prosecuted that still have legal rights. Source: Thai News Agency