Close supervision and monitoring by the Bank of Thailand would obstruct virtual banks from expanding their loan portfolios aggressively in the first five years of operations, even though they are likely to offer small-ticket, unsecured personal loans below 10,000 baht, analysts say.
The rollout of Thailand's virtual banks serves the central bank's goal of enhancing access to funding for underserved and underbanked customers while creating fair competition without leading to high levels of borrower indebtedness, said Weerapat Wonk-urai, an analyst at CGS International Securities (Thailand).
