Thailands banks are not as healthy as they claim.

[caller]

No real surprise, but even so!

S&P downgrade of top Thai banks raises new questions of regulatory forbearance and financial transparency in the Covid-wracked kingdom

https://asiatimes.com/2022/04/thailands-banks-not-as-healthy-as-they-claim/

[Coolkorat]

Very interesting article. The last two paragraphs are particularly notable:

"Thailand’s palatially and politically connected big banks are too big to fail and the kingdom’s rich stock of US$245 billion in foreign reserves provides a buffer the country didn’t have at the advent of the 1997-98 financial crisis, when the BoT mismanaged the national reserves literally to zero and NPLs ballooned to 48%.

No one is predicting a similar type of financial collapse, even amid 1997-like concerns about the kingdom’s underlying financial health and transparency. But without a quick and strong bounce in new tourist arrivals, the Covid ambulance sirens ringing out in Bangkok could portend a health-turned-financial emergency."

Perhaps further exchange rate fluctuations about to start?

[Hector]

Thanks for that link Caller, definitely worth a read, although I confess as something of a financial tyro, I didn't fully understand all of it.  I was interested in the fact that in the '97 crash (the year I arrived!) the country did not have the large Foreign Reserves buffer it has now, although I think I read somewhere that the BoT was eating into them these days.  Baht/pound dollar etc fluctuations?  Yes, it will be interesting to see how this goes.