An additional problem was the short-term nature of the foreign debts. Short-term borrowing (i.e. loans of less than a year’s duration) meant that there was a need for the banks’ accounts always to be liquid.
In Thailand, which had the weakest position of the Asian Tigers in this regard, short-term capital inflows formed the majority of all capital inflows and hovered between 7% and 10% of GDP in each year from 1994 to 1996. Given their overseas origin, such short-term obligations left the banks searching for rollover funds if existing loans were ever called in.