BANGKOK, Thailand – The Bank of Thailand is preparing three new measures to improve access to finance for small and medium-sized enterprises after finding that SME loan rejection rates remain as high as 60–70%, with some groups facing rejection rates above 80%. Bank of Thailand Governor Vitai Ratanakorn said at the TNN Future Forum 2026 seminar, titled “SMEs: The Driving Force of Thailand’s Future Economy,” that the central bank is addressing four major structural problems facing the Thai economy: household debt, access to credit for SMEs and small businesses, financial inequality including interest rates and fees, and the misuse of financial channels for illegal or “grey money” transactions.
Vitai said Thailand’s economic growth has slowed considerably over the decades. Before the 1997 Asian financial crisis, the economy expanded by around 7–8% annually. Growth subsequently slowed to about 5.3%, then 3.7% following later economic crises, while average growth after the Covid-19 pandemic has been only about 2.4%. Thailand’s economy is expected to grow by around 2.3% in 2026, an improvement from the earlier forecast of 1.8–1.9%, partly due to government economic measures. However, Vitai said this remains below Thailand’s potential growth rate of around 3–4%.
The weak growth has affected household and business incomes, which have risen only slowly while living costs remain high. Vitai cited several structural problems, including political instability, the education system, an ageing society and external economic pressures. SMEs are particularly important to the Thai economy, with around 3.28 million businesses employing approximately 13.6 million people, or about 69% of total employment. They generate around 1.73 trillion baht in economic value, equivalent to about 35% of GDP.
However, the contribution of SMEs to economic growth has declined sharply. Between 2012 and 2019, SMEs contributed about 1.9 percentage points to overall GDP growth of 3.5%. Between 2023 and 2025, their contribution fell to around 1 percentage point, while overall economic growth averaged about 2.5%. One of the most serious problems is access to bank credit.
Vitai said SME loan applications have continued to increase, but many businesses are still unable to obtain financing because banks face high credit costs and elevated risks. The rejection rate for SME loan applications has remained around 60–70%. For newly established SMEs without a financial credit history, the rejection rate rises to about 78%. For businesses with existing bad debt, as many as 86% of applications are rejected, while the actual rejection rate could be as high as 90% when the broader market is assessed.
In 2025, only 45% of loan applications from existing SME borrowers in vulnerable groups were approved, leaving 55% without financing. Even financially stronger SMEs face difficulties. Among the top 30% of SMEs in terms of operating efficiency, only about 21% can access loans from commercial banks, compared with 63% of large businesses in the same high-potential group.
The cost of borrowing is also considerably higher for SMEs. Their average interest rate is around 6.9%, compared with about 3.9% for large businesses. SMEs with a history of bad debt have access to formal credit of only about 14%, while those without a financial history have access of about 22%.
Vitai said the figures demonstrate that simply reducing interest rates cannot solve the problem. SME non-performing loans remain around 9–9.5%, compared with less than 2% among large companies, making banks more cautious about lending. SME lending has also contracted for 16 consecutive quarters, while lending to large businesses has started to recover and turned positive during the past two to three quarters. The central bank governor acknowledged that not every SME can or should be rescued through easier access to credit. Some businesses lack the competitiveness needed to survive, while others face production costs higher than imported Chinese products. Traditional trading businesses are also under increasing pressure from online platforms.
Vitai said both the financial sector and the real economy therefore need to be addressed simultaneously. Another concern is the growing number of so-called “zombie” companies, whose earnings before interest and taxes are insufficient to cover interest payments. Their share has increased from around 2% to almost 6%, contributing to a more pronounced K-shaped recovery in which large businesses recover faster while SMEs and small operators struggle to adapt. Bank of Thailand analysis found that about 38% of SMEs remain profitable and capable of further growth. This group is considered a key priority for improved access to credit.
Other businesses, including those that remain profitable but are not growing or those that are growing without generating profits, require different forms of assistance. Businesses that are no longer viable may ultimately have to adjust or exit the market through normal market mechanisms.
To improve access to finance, the Bank of Thailand is preparing three major measures.
The first is a central Credit Portal, which will allow viable SMEs to submit their financing needs through a single platform. Banks, financial institutions and non-bank lenders will then be able to consider those applications. The project is expected to involve the Thai Chamber of Commerce, business associations, commercial banks and state-owned financial institutions, with the central bank expected to announce details in December.
The second measure is a new credit-guarantee mechanism designed to operate alongside the Thai Credit Guarantee Corporation without requiring a direct government budget allocation. The mechanism will use about 20 billion baht from the Financial Institutions Development Fund, or FIDF. The programme has already been operating for about six months and has facilitated around 70 billion baht in loans against an initial target of 80 billion baht.
The Bank of Thailand plans to expand cooperation with the Thai Credit Guarantee Corporation to provide guarantees covering around 100 billion baht in SME loans each year. The proposal is expected to be submitted to Finance Minister Ekniti Nitithanprapas in the fourth quarter, with implementation expected to begin in 2027. Together with the other measures, the central bank expects the new system to help SMEs gain access to as much as 200 billion baht in credit each year. That compares with estimated SME demand for around 400 billion baht in loans annually, meaning the planned measures would address roughly half of the current financing demand.
The third measure involves linking financial and non-financial data to improve credit assessments while also detecting suspicious transactions. The system would bring together information such as electricity and water payments, tax payments, mobile-phone usage and payment data. The Bank of Thailand also plans to standardise bank statements across financial institutions. The aim is to allow shopkeepers, self-employed workers and SMEs without conventional bank statements to use alternative data to demonstrate their ability to repay loans and improve their chances of obtaining financing. The same data infrastructure would also be used to identify suspicious “grey money” transactions, including unusual gold purchases, foreign-exchange transactions and cryptocurrency transactions such as USDT.
The Ministry of Finance is expected to participate in the programme, with the system also scheduled to begin operating in 2027. Vitai said the Bank of Thailand’s broader role reflects the fact that, unlike the US Federal Reserve, it is responsible not only for monetary policy but also for supervising financial institutions. The central bank therefore sees financial-sector regulation as an important tool for addressing Thailand’s structural economic problems. The challenge, he said, is to improve access to finance for viable SMEs without encouraging banks to lend recklessly to businesses that cannot survive.
The planned measures are intended to close part of that gap by giving stronger businesses better access to credit, providing new guarantees for borrowers facing financing barriers and using broader data to assess businesses that are currently invisible to conventional credit-scoring systems.
The Bank of Thailand hopes the approach will help reverse the prolonged contraction in SME lending while allowing the sector to play a larger role in restoring Thailand’s economic growth. This version keeps the 60–70% rejection rate and 200-billion-baht annual credit goal as the central news angle, while retaining the structural economic context and all three measures.
