Interest rates for SMEs continued to climb over the entire period, since Thailand did not engage in monetary easing. Interest rate spreads between small and large enterprises increased slightly. More importantly, the value of collateral required as a percentage of the value of the loan increased from about 60% (2007) to 170% (2010). Nearly all SMEs in Thailand were required to pledge collateral. Banks had a high degree of risk aversion and more stringent SME loan approval procedures. However, this was not entirely unreasonable given the high rate of non-performing SME loans, which exceeded the rate for all business loans.