The Bank of Thailand announced new rules on Wednesday, tightening controls on credit cards and unsecured personal loans amid concerns about high household debt and bad loans. The measures, effective on Sept 1, include a reduction on personal credit limits for new credit card applicants from the current five times their income. They also include a cut in the maximum credit card interest rate to 18% from 20%, central bank deputy governor Ruchukorn Siriyodhin told a news conference. Credit card applicants with a monthly salary of less than 30,000 baht ($895.26) will have a credit line of up to 1.5 times their income, she said. The move is likely to put a drag on earnings of credit card issuers and on consumption, already curbed by high household debt levels and a fragile economic recovery.

Source: Bangkok Post July 26, 2017 04:18 UTC