The Small and Medium Enterprise Development Bank (SME Bank) will work with the Association of Thai Software Industry (ATSI) to help software houses get loans based on their intellectual property. ATSI will draft regulations for measuring their capital value.
Speaking at the “Converting Software Assets to Capital” seminar held by ATSI last week, SME Bank president Dr Samran Bhuanantanondh said valuing software was a new attempt to support the growth of local software houses.The bank also needed to educate its staff to understand the new policy.
Previously, those who applied for a loan needed to have property or tangible assets as a loan guarantee, but for software developers - of which 95% of the 700 companies are SMEs - asset guarantees were often not available. In addition, software development is seen as a high risk business, so banks have hesitated to approve loans.
