BAAC to set up community banks to lessen farmers´ informal debts

BANGKOK, 28 April 2009 (NNT) – The Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC) has prepared to set up community banks by this May, aiming to provide loans for low-income farmers who currently have informal debts up to 50,000 THB.

The Bank has discussed with Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij on the project. Presently, a committee has been assigned to supervise the project by developing an IT system. About 200 officials will be trained for the project implementation afterward.

The community bank will be a means to assist farmers who have informal debts of no more than 50,000 THB. Community banks setting up has been scheduled to be finished by May 2010 and farmers’ debts of 608,384 persons will be transferred into the BAAC within August with the total obligation value of 64.54 billion THB.