| Thailand: relative calm seems to have returned to the Thai banking sector. |
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Best bank:
Bangkok Bank
Best equity house:
Merrill Lynch Phatra Securities
Best debt house:
Thai Farmers Bank
Bank restructuring seems to be coming to an end with debt restructuring emerging as the next theme. Questions quite naturally focus on non-performing loans. Accusations of cosmetic adjusting echo around the institutions. The reported level of NPLs is 18% of loans. However if you add those to the write-offs the figure is still up in the region of 40%.
Bangkok Bank is the one bank that has stopped procrastinating and is moving in the correct fashion to restructure its debt.
The bank is moving aggressively into the retail market in an attempt to become the reliable all rounder.