A key policy agenda of the Thaksin administration was to pump credit into the grassroots and the SME sector in order to gain popular support. As part of these "populist" policies, numerous schemes have been initiated, such as the 1 million baht village fund, people's bank, SME promotion, small-medium-large village fund, and uncounted number of subsidized products and social welfare schemes. The state-owned banks and the specialized public financial institutions have been key instruments of these populist policies. They have been providing "state-directed" lending to serve these policies. A number of incidents indicate the potential risks inherent in this approach.