Thai cash handout to lift finance company debt collection and asset quality

The campaign will boost mid and low-income earners and alleviate their cost of living.

Thai finance companies expect to see good debt collection and asset quality thanks to the Thai government’s new cash handout campaign.

“Finance companies expect this campaign to help boost mid-to-low-income earners and alleviate the cost of living, resulting in finance companies having good debt collection and asset quality,” said UOB Kay Hian analyst Thanawat Thangchadakorn and assistant analyst Panjarat Thaweesriprasert.

The government’s “Thai Help Thai Plus 60/40” campaign grants eligible citizens a THB1,000 monthly subsidy via the Paotang app for a total of four months. About 30 million people are eligible to register.

Under the campaign, the government will subsidise 60%, and citizens pay 40%, with a daily limit of THB200 from the government subsidy.

Krungthai Card (KTC) is expected to benefit from the campaign as will be done via Paotang, Krungthai Card’s digital financial super-app, Thangchadakorn wrote in an earlier UOBKH report.

Thangchadakorn and Thaweesriprasert expect the campaign to be more impactful than 2025’s cash handout programme. The Half-Half Plus programme in 2025 granted subsidies to 20 million people.

Finance companies’ net profit went uo 21% year-on-year (YoY) and 12% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) to THB6.95b.

The finance companies continue to control their asset quality well and prepare for the impact from uncertainties with a cautious lending policy, Thangchadakorn and Thaweesriprasert said.

Finance companies in the report are KTC, Muangthai Capital, Srisawad Capital, and Tidlor Holdings.