Thailand postpones card repayment rate hike amidst borrower struggles: report

The central bank will continue to promote consolidation of home and retail debt.

Thailand’s central bank is keeping its minimum repayment rate of 8% for credit-card users until end-2025 in a bid to help struggling borrowers repay their debt.

The Bank of Thailand (BOT) had earlier proposed that the rate should be increased to 10% starting 1 January 2025, reports Bloomberg, based on a statement by the BOT on 2 August.

Debtors unable to meet the minimum repayment obligation can seek to restructure their obligations to term loans to be paid back in installments, the BOT said.

The central bank said that it will “continue to promote consolidation of lenders’ home and retail debt by relaxing the loan-to-value ratio norms to reduce the overall burden and bring down the interest rate.” 

BOT has also extended the settlement period to 7 years for borrowers with “persistent debt”, from just 5 years previously.

Read more from Bloomberg.