Allowing more banks will make sector more competitive, banker says

He also spoke about the wealth gap, noting that the gap between the top 20% and the bottom 20% has increased tenfold. There is also a massive disparity in land ownership, while only 1% of the 110 million bank accounts in Thailand have more than 1 million baht in them. Still, they add up to more than 70% of total bank deposits, Kobsak said.

He said the top-down economic growth approach has failed.

If Thailand does not change this model now, it will become increasingly difficult to do so in the future, he added, stressing that the focus must be on sustainable development.

Thailand’s problems should be addressed at the community level, he said, before listing three major problems:

Informal debt: These debts have high interest rates that make it impossible to repay the principal and trap borrowers in debt.

Middleman: Brokers have too much in some sectors and the result is that…