Singapore - Moody's Investors Service says that the overall credit profiles of Thai banks will remain stable in the coming quarters as an improvement in operating conditions coupled with accommodative fiscal and monetary policies will boost loan growth and support asset quality.
The ratings agency expects credit growth in Thailand, currently at Baa1 stable, to accelerate in the second half, coming in at around 5%-7% on a full-year basis.
"Credit growth will likely accelerate more quickly for banks focused on corporate and small- and medium-sized enterprise borrowers, compared to retail-focused banks," says Daphne Cheng, a Moody's associate analyst and a co-author of the report.
"That said, the banks' reported asset-quality metrics will likely continue to show some deterioration, reflecting in part the lagged effects of the earlier turmoil, with assets related to retail and small and medium-sized enterprise borrowers as the most vulnerable, though we expect the extent of the deterioration to be relatively modest and within the banks' capacity to manage," says Alka Anbarasu, a Moody's assistant vice president and analyst, the other co-author of the report.
Moody's conclusions were contained in a just-released special comment entitled, Thai Banks: Credit Profiles Will Remain Stable.
Since taking power, the military government has increased outlays for investment and infrastructure projects that were previously delayed. In addition, the approval on Aug 19 of the draft budget for 2015 has provided clarity on spending for the year ahead.
For loans to small and medium-sized enterprises, the Thai Credit Guarantee Corporation is planning to increase the volume of loans that it guarantees and to broaden the scope of assets that are eligible as collateral.
Meanwhile, retail lending growth will remain subdued, as banks are cautious about consumers increasing their indebtedness. Household debt reached a historical high of 83% of GDP at the end of March, and is one of the highest in Asia.
"Reported asset-quality metrics will deteriorate moderately for the rest of the year, reflecting the time lag until loans affected by the political turmoil in the first half become classified as nonperforming loans (NPLs)," added Ms Cheng. However, Moody's expects that underlying asset quality will remain broadly stable for large corporate loans.
In contrast, high levels of indebtedness mean that it will take longer for underlying asset quality to stabilise in the retail segment, affecting some small and medium-sized enterprises as well.
Moody's notes that the leading indicators of banks' asset quality-the retail sales index, manufacturing capacity utilisation, exports of goods and the SET index-suggest stability for large corporate borrowers and some weakness in retail loans over the next few quarters.
Thai banks continue to have strong loss-absorbing buffers, supported by stable profitability and capital generation capacity.
The average Tier 1 ratio of Moody's-rated Thai banks was 11.6% as of June 30 this year, with loan-loss allowances covering 138% of NPLs. Pre-provision profitability will remain sufficiently strong to absorb higher credit costs and support capital generation.
"We also expects banks will selectively tap the capital markets to replace their Tier 2 subordinated bonds with Basel III compliant instruments so that they have capital to capture loan growth as economic activity picks up", added Mr Anbarasu.