4.2 financial and corporate sector reform in Thailand
In response to banking sector weaknesses in the 1980s, the Thai authorities had initiated reform measures, including the creation of the Financial Institutions Development Fund(FIDF), a separate legal entivy within the bank of Thailand (BOT) with a mandate to restructure, develop, and provide financial support to financial institutions(Lindren et al. 1999). Notwithstanding these efforts, the authorities failed to manage the risks in the rapidly growing banking system. Among the main structural weaknesses, the quality of loan portfolios in bank and financial institutions was weak, as shown by the high and increasing rate of NPLs,while banks and finance companies had not put aside sufficient reserves for their deteriorating loan portfolios. These structural weaknesses resulted, in part, from weaknesses both in the content and the cimplementation of prudential regulations. The rules for loan classification,provisioning,and accouting,for example, were inadequate and were applied inconsistently. There were no prudential limits on loads concentration:bank built up excessive exposure to particular sectors such as the property market; there was also excessive lending based on collateral rather than proper credit assessment