Micro-finance

The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors last week approved US$40 million in emergency finance support for small and medium-sized businesses in Laos to help them recover from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the bank said in a press release. The funding will be channelled ...

Agriculture, electronics, and food and drink have been hit hardest by the baht’s 6% year-to-date appreciation, according to Asia Plus Securities (ASP). Porranee Thongyen, ASP’s head of research, said the stronger than expected baht hurt exporters like Sri Trang Agro Industry Plc, which earns most ...

The Vietnam International Arbitration Centre organised a workshop on June 6 with the International Finance Corporation to promote the use of alternative dispute resolution methods in the banking and finance sector. The conference, named ‘Benefits and Challenges of Using ADR for Banking Disputes’, focused on the principles, ...

The Bank of Thailand on June 5 loosened a set of foreign exchange regulations, including allowing Thais to invest directly in securities abroad at an amount of up to $1 million a year, in a fresh bid to accommodate capital outflows, curb the appreciating baht (which ...

Much of the deforestation in the world’s tropical rainforests comes so that we humans have enough to eat. But sustainable agricultural practices exist that help farmers coax more corn and soybeans, coffee and cacao, and a host of other products from the soil, without having ...

The Department of Industrial Promotion will extend loans initially totalling Bt20 billion from a Pracha Rath fund for SME development in eight provinces, starting with Songkhla on May 24. Eight provinces have been initially targeted for the programme. Besides Songkhla, they are Krabi, Chon Buri, ...

While financial inclusion is a top priority for emerging economies, new research suggests more stringent enforcement of anti-money regulations in recent years has resulted in major Western banks disconnecting from these regions, leaving local businesses without access to the international financial system. Correspondent banking relationships, ...

The Bank of Thailand and the Bank of Japan have signed an agreement to govern the Bilateral Swap Arrangement (BSA), enabling both countries to exchange their currencies. The facility under the arrangement amounts to US$3 billion (102.4 billion baht), said Chantavarn Sucharitakul, assistant governor, corporate ...

Acleda Bank’s foreign operations in Laos and Myanmar performed well during the first quarter of 2017 while recording strong net profits last year, leading the bank to seek further regional expansion, according to a senior executive. Acleda has 41 commercial branches in Laos and six MFI ...

Ten banks have announced that their combined net profit in the first quarter of this year was Bt55.71 billion, up 8 per cent from the same period of last year, thanks to increases on both interest and non-interest income. Most of their non-performing-loan ratios in ...