Thailand’s National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC) has issued a stern warning about the escalating debt held by cooperatives, arguing that their operations could spark a new financial crisis.
According to a recent NESDC report, Thailand has 6,092 cooperatives with a total of 11 million members. The report highlights that savings cooperatives are the most significant, holding a staggering 2.27 to 2.7 trillion baht in loans, which accounts for 90% of all cooperative lending.
This massive figure represents approximately 15% of the nation’s total household debt.
Danucha Pichayanan, the NESDC’s Secretary-General, explained that while cooperatives serve as a crucial financial mechanism, their lending practices pose a serious risk.
Members can easily obtain loans with little to no credit review, and only six of the nation’s 1,369 savings cooperatives are voluntarily linked to the national credit bureau. This lack of data sharing makes it difficult for commercial banks to accurately assess a borrower’s overall financial health and debt-repayment capacity.
Furthermore, Danucha pointed out that savings cooperatives are incentivised to charge high interest rates on loans in order to generate high dividends for their depositors and shareholders.