Dr. Paipoom Rojanasakul, Secretary to the Minister of Finance stated that the Ministry of Finance, in collaboration with relevant agencies, will establish a joint venture company JV AMC, which is a partnership between state-owned specialized banks and asset management companies at a 50:50 ratio, to address the long-standing issue of public debt. In the past, state-owned specialized banks faced limitations in debt restructuring, such as being unable to write off principal amounts, the costs of collection not justifying the debt value, and accounting standards that posed obstacles. This has resulted in a chronic problem with a lack of flexibility, leading to unresolved non-performing loans.

Thus, the Ministry of Finance is stepping into a new context by establishing the JV AMC to take over debtors with loan amounts not exceeding 20 million baht from state-owned specialized banks to the JV AMC. This will facilitate at least one debt restructuring for debtors in a more agile manner without being hindered by accounting standards. It will make it easier to reduce installment payments, write off principal amounts, and settle debts more quickly, allowing citizens to escape from non-performing loans and re-enter the credit system. At the same time, the non-performing loans of state banks will be managed by experts in the management of substandard assets directly. This not only allows for more agile management of non-performing loans but also enables state-owned specialized banks to have more capital to expand their assistance to the public.

We aim to assist approximately 3 million debtors with outstanding non-performing loans with SFIs, totaling 230 billion baht, by the end of the first quarter of this year.