Standard Chartered Village

Standard Chartered Bank (Thai) and Population and Community Development Association (PDA) had adopted Ban Nong Pruek, a village in the north east of Thailand, in 2008, to eradicate poverty and build sustainable development through the microfinance.

Standard Chartered Bank (Thai) gave the residents of Ban Nong Pruek village an initial loan of USD 13,000 through its village development bank. Since then, the villagers’ average income has increased by 12 per cent, and their debt has been reduced by 11 per cent.

Prior to this pilot, many people’s only option was to take out a private loan which charged up to 20 per cent interest daily.

Following the success of this pilot, the Bank will roll out this microfinance model in other villages in Thailand and also welcome and encourage other banks to replicate this model.

Origination & Client Coverage, Wholesale Bank CSR Day (April 2011)

As the first CSR Trip in April 2011, arranged by Origination & Client Coverage team (OCC), Mr. Kamalkant Agarwal (Head of OCC, Wholesale Bank) along with 95 OCC staff participated in CSR activities at Baan Nhong Bua Klang school located in Baan Nong Preuk Village, supported by Standard Chartered Bank (SCBT), located in Nakorn Ratchasima province. There are more than 160 students ranged from kindergarten to grade 6.  

OCC team provided the activities including building painting, floor tiling, new water well and vegetable plots building to the school. KFC Happy Meal with toys was also brought to all kids. Lunch was provided to all staff and parents. In addition, OCC staff had donated THB 46,100 for school’s learning purpose.

Mr.Kamalkant Agarwal along with business segment heads had also stopped to donate toys at the Village’s Toy Library and had visited the village to see the operations of solar cell site, mushroom and cricket farm.

SCBT’s Non-Executive Directors and the Chief Executive Officer visited “Standard Chartered Village” in Nakorn Ratchasima province.
(March 2011)

Recently, Ms. Lyn Kok, President and CEO of SCBT, led the members of the Board of Director: Khun Pakorn Malakul Na Ayudhya; Khun Chalaw Fuanaromya; Prof. Somchai Richupan; and Khun Thippaporn Gertphol visited “SC Village” - Baan Nong Pruek in Nakorn Ratchasima province, the village under SCBT’s financial support.  Khun Lyn Kok led the group to see the operation of village development bank and villagers’ straw mushroom cultivation and cricket farm, the other sources of income outside rice growing season.     

Also, the group visited Nong Bua Klang School, where the Bank had supported with 12 computers to broaden the children’s horizon of learning.

Micro-financing experiment in Thailand --- poverty eradication and sustainable economic empowerment. (February 2011)

In 2008, Standard Chartered Bank (Thai) sponsored and started experimenting micro-finance concept in a village in the north east of Thailand to provide financial access at the country’s micro level. After injecting 13,000 USD as an initial loan the villagers’ average income has been increased around 12% while debt is now lowered by 11% in 2010.

Standard Chartered Bank (Thai) is now moving on to the next phase by bringing in undergraduate students of a leading academic institute; Thammasat Business School to share their fresh perspectives and to propose a robust plan to enhance micro-financing activity and design financial literacy kits to bring the village’s economic empowerment alive.

The plan was recently presented and handed over to country’s CEO’s Lyn Kok, CSR gurus and local media.