It appears to be common wisdom that the basic cause of Thailand's crisis is its extraordinarily weak financial institutions. The paper questions this proposition from an empirical viewpoint. It is well established that the long-term performance of Thailand's financial system is favorable. The...

A data set of 560 credit files from Thai commercial banks is compiled. The loans granted between 1992 and 1996 follow a pattern known from mature markets as a similar set of variables explains much of the variance in interest rate spread. A second finding is the expected higher importance of...

Evidence from credit files is provided to examine bank lending determinants of Thaicommercial banks. Their lending practice follows reasonable patterns as a standardset of variables, including indirect risk variables, explains much of the variance in interestrate spread. Reflecting institutional...