Likelihood of government support due to the bank's high systemic importance. Strong franchise as the third-largest commercial bank in Thailand. Evolving risk management practices. Moderate capitalization. The stable outlook on Krung Thai Bank Public Co. Ltd. (KTB) reflects our expectation that that the bank's asset quality will start to stabilize over the next 12-18 months. We also expect the bank will maintain its high systemic importance in Thailand. We could lower the rating in the next 12-18 months if the weakening trend in bank asset quality does not reverse. The bank's nonperforming loan (NPL) ratio of 5.5% as of Sept. 30, 2017, is already higher than the industry average and that of other large peers. We could also lower the
