5.1. Non-bank financial institutions
NBFIs in Thailand are defined as non-deposit taking financial intermediaries.10 Their main
purpose is the provision of loans and in this respect they have reached a considerable position in
the market. At the end of 2005 the market share of all NBFIs – including finance companies, life
insurance companies, the marginal credit foncier companies and as its core the biggest group of
other general non-bank companies – accounts for 8.1% of total loans (total is 7,500 billion Baht,
i.e. about 185 billion USD). Thus banks are still by far dominating with a share of 91.9%.
However, this picture is misleading because NBFIs have much higher market shares in their fields
of operation. The relative size of these fields of loan granting by non-bank businesses, each
approximated by the respective suppliers of credit, is shown in Fig. 6. Whereas leasing and hirepurchase
companies provide loans of longer-term nature (usually 3 to 5 years), the three other
kinds of companies – i.e. personal loan, credit card and factoring companies – provide rather
short-term loans.