Siam Commercial Bank (SCB), the country's second-largest lender by assets, expects to reach its 2018 loan growth target for small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) of 6-7%, though it delivered only 1% growth for the first half. Pikun Srimahunt, senior executive vice-president and head of SCB's SME segment, said that improving loan demand from SMEs in the second half should help the bank achieve its target. SCB's SME outstanding loans edged up 1% from the end of last year to reach 340 billion baht at the end of June. To achieve the target, the bank needs to book SME loan growth of 3.5% per quarter in the second half of 2018, she said. At the end of June, SCB managed to keep a lid on SME non-performing loans (NPL) at around 28 billion baht.

Source: Bangkok Post September 10, 2018 23:48 UTC