Welcome to the only website dedicated to Microfinance in Thailand. We hope that this website will help generate interest and discussions about the role of microfinance/micro-credit in the development of the country. We encourage you to browse our site and please feel free to contact us with opinions or suggestions.

Microfinance in Thailand is unique. While nearly all of its neighbours have well-developed microfinance sectors, Thailand’s is rather small. A quick search on the internet will give the assumption that there is little, or even no, micro-credit activity here.

The truth is that the Thai government is very involved in micro-credit. Several large programs are fully funded by the government. These include the Government Savings Bank and the BAAC Bank. While it’s difficult to evaluate the financial or social success of these programs, they appear to be doing well. Because of this, there has been little emphasis to create a legal environment friendly to non-governmental agencies.

Several non-governmental agencies currently do have small micro-credit/microfinance programs throughout Thailand. Usually, they target a specific group of people such as hill-tribe groups, urban slums or people living with the HIV virus. Most of these programs are small and have little contact with each other.

Our goal is to provide some kind of forum for discussion and sharing of ideas while promoting microfinance as a tool in the fight against poverty.