The freshly announced financial results for the first half of 2026 show Thai commercial banks with varied outcomes—some posting profit growth exceeding 50%, while others suffered double-digit declines. Today, Thairath Money delves into the financial statements of all 11 banks to uncover notable details.
Starting with the “net profit” for the first half of 2026 (January - June), the top three Thai banks by profit are:
Rank 1: Kasikornbank (KBank) Reported a net profit of 27.915 billion baht, growing 6.22% year-on-year (YoY). Although its major interest income dropped 9.55% due to falling interest rates, non-interest income rose sharply by 29.81%, driven by wealth management, insurance revenue, and other income streams.
Rank 2: Krungthai Bank (KTB) Recorded a net profit of 24.562 billion baht, up 7.60% YoY. Despite facing a heavy hit from a 14.7% decline in interest income, non-interest income continued to grow from wealth management, money and capital markets businesses, partial recognition of fair value gains on transportation sector investments, and recoveries from previously written-off bad debts, which the bank prioritizes.
Rank 3: SCB Public Company Limited (SCB) The parent company of Siam Commercial Bank and other financial businesses reported a net profit of 21.312 billion baht, down 15.70% YoY. Similar to most banks, this was due to a 12.0% drop in interest income, along with a 36.8% decrease in investment gains.
Besides SCB, there is also Bangkok Bank (BBL) which reported a net profit of 20.492 billion baht for the first half of 2026, declining 16.20% YoY. The main cause was a sharp contraction in interest income.
Now, which banks showed the highest net profit growth rates in the first half of 2026? They are: : 1) Kiattana Kiatnakin Phatra Bank (KKP) Reported a net profit of 4.078 billion baht, growing 65.0% YoY. 2) CIMB Thai Bank (CIMBT) Achieved a net profit of 1.4885 billion baht, up 47.0% YoY. 3) LH Financial Group Public Company Limited (LHFG) which includes LH Bank, reported a net profit of 1.5386 billion baht, growing 37.3% YoY.
Since banks primarily earn from interest, the recent downward trend in interest rates has impacted net interest margin (NIM) reductions. Let's see how each bank's NIM changed in the first half of 2026 compared to the end of June 2025.
Most commercial banks, large to small, experienced NIM declines. For example, KBank fell to 2.91% (from 3.36%), SCB to 3.05% (from 3.59%), BBL to 2.46% (from 2.85%), TMBThanachart Bank (ttb) declined to 3.02% (from 3.13%), Thai Credit Bank (CREDIT) fell to 7.10% (from 7.80%), among others.
Banks with rising NIM include 1) Bank of Ayudhya (BAY) which increased to 4.60% from 4.14% in June 2025, 2) KKP rose to 4.60% from 4.50%, and 3) TISCO Financial Group Public Company Limited (TISCO) whose bank's NIM rose to 4.98% from 4.75%.
Since banks focus on income from loans, the volume of non-performing loans (NPLs) reflects their performance in various aspects. For the first half of 2026, which banks had the highest NPLs and how much did these increase since the end of 2025?
Rank 1: Bangkok Bank Reported NPLs of 105.261 billion baht, up 11.19%, with an NPL ratio of 3.30%.
Rank 2: Krungthai Bank Had NPLs of 93.706 billion baht, rising 0.86%, with an NPL ratio of 2.92%.
Rank 3: SCB Reported NPLs of 91.934 billion baht, down 4.40%, with an NPL ratio of 3.17%.
The bank with the largest reduction in NPLs in the first half of 2026 is Kiattana Kiatnakin Phatra Bank, with NPLs at 12.720 billion baht, down 15.95% year-to-date (YTD). This resulted from the bank writing off long-outstanding bad debts from Micro SMEs loans in Q2 2026.
Next is TISCO, with NPLs at 4.994 billion baht, down 7.03% YTD, followed by Bank of Ayudhya (BAY), with NPLs around 68.552 billion baht, down 7.00% YTD.
Recently, Thai commercial banks have been cautious in lending, focusing on quality loans, which may improve the bad debt situation. However, going forward, it remains to be seen how interest rates will trend and how banks will manage the still-high household debt.
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