The consumer finance company Krungthai Card has launched a new personal instalment loan product aimed at small-business owners.
The non-collateral loan offers credit lines from one million to four million baht (US$24,000 – US$97,000), claimed as the largest in the industry for a non-guaranteed credit product. Applicants must be owners of registered companies with annual sales of eight to 400 million baht, have personal income of over one million baht per year and have a business track record of at least four years.
Niwatt Chittalarn, KTC's president and chief executive, said the company's shift away from the retail market segment reflected wariness of taking on greater risks so long as operations at the country's credit bureaux remained stalled.
He noted that business entrepreneurs also represented a huge potential market, with 300,000 juristic persons registered with the Commerce Ministry and some one million business owners nationwide.
