The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted more Thai people to put their savings in banks, increasing the number of bank depositors covered by the Deposit Protection Agency (DPA), for the first six months of this year, to 80.82 million, an increase of 1.1 million compared to the whole of last year and the highest in 12 years.
According to DPA director Mr. Songphol Chivapanyarote, 98% of the depositors are small savers whose bank accounts contain less than one million baht.
He attributed the rise in savings deposits to public concerns over the worsening economy, prompting many people to rely on the safety banks, compared to investing their nest eggs in other, possibly riskier ways.
Mr. Songphol appealed to depositors not worry about the stability of commercial banks, saying that they are quite solid and none of them have a problem putting money into the DPA’s fund.
As for the second half of the year, he predicted that bank deposits could return to normal, depending on Thailand’s economic situation and global variables.
As far as the DPA’s liquidity is concerned, Mr. Songphol said that there is 129.969 billion baht in the DPA’s fund, with about two billion baht in interest earned, on investments in Government and Bank of Thailand bonds, and 1.4 billion baht from financial institutions.
