SME bad loans peak in Q4 of 2020 published : 23 Feb 2021 at 04:00 1 Non-performing loans (NPLs) of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) peaked in last year's final quarter after businesses endured a big impact from the pandemic, especially those associated with the tourism industry, says the Bank of Thailand. Gross SME NPLs, classified as stage 3 loans under the Thai Financial Reporting Standards 9 implemented since Jan 1 2020, in the commercial banking sector stood at 6.84% of total outstanding SME loans in last year's final quarter. The SME bad loan ratio saw an uptick from 6.52% in the third quarter and 6.22% registered at year-end 2019. The SME loan segment is defined as having a total credit line of no more than 500 million baht per company.