MANULIFE TO OFFER MORTGAGE, CREDIT CARD RELIEF.

TORONTO • Manulife Financial Corp.’s Canadian unit is prepared to provide relief from credit card or mortgage obligations to its banking customers who are directly impacted by economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are approaching, on a case-by-case basis, if customers have (financial) reasons they’re struggling,” Mike Doughty, chief executive of Manulife Canada, told the Financial Post.

Doughty said the Canadian banking unit of Manulife Financial, one of the country’s largest companies, will allow mortgage payment deferrals of up to six months, alongside Canada’s six largest banks. The firm will also provide unspecified “relief” when it comes to other credit products, such as credit cards, he said.

Canadians, many of whom are already saddled with consumer debt including credit cards with high rates of interest on outstanding balances, have been financially squeezed by layoffs resulting from mandatory business shutdowns to curb the spread of the virus.

The federal government announced a $27 billion emergency financial aid package for workers last week, but many are expected to take a hit to their monthly pay.

Doughty said Manulife Canada is also in discussions with customers in the firm’s other lines of business, which include wealth management, group benefits, and life and travel insurance.

“It’s a combination of both proactive and reactive” communication, he said, adding that advisers are fielding numerous calls from wealth management clients seeking advice about how to handle the stock market’s precipitous tumble.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is off more than 30 per cent from its high earlier this year, and on pace to record its worst month since the Depression.

“What we don’t want is people pulling out at the worst time, which often happens,” Doughty said from his temporary office in the basement of his Waterloo, Ont., home. He has been working from home, along with some 8,000 employees of Manulife Canada who are dealing with everything from customer service to strategy.

Manulife’s travel insurance unit was among the first in Canada to declare the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 a “known event,” rendering it an ineligible cause for travel cancellation or interruption claims.

The March 5 activation date stands, but Doughty said the broad travel restrictions subsequently announced by the federal government — advising against non-essential travel anywhere in the world and any travel on cruise ships — has broadened what could be claimed on insurance purchased prior to that date.

“It was obviously a situation that evolved very quickly,” he said. “We did honour that. It’s a legitimate reason for you to be able to get a refund.”

The global pandemic also prompted Manulife to automatically extend emergency out-of-country travel insurance coverage until at least the end of April for any individual and group customers trapped abroad, he said.

The firm is also waiving a customary one-week waiting period for short-term disability claims, which won’t require a doctor’s note at this time. The measures are meant to encourage people to stay at home, and to remove a burden from the health-care system.

Doughty said he was unable to quantify any financial hit Manulife might suffer as a result of COVID-19 because the financial services giant is a public company with strict regulations around such disclosure. However, he noted that while Manulife is a top provider of travel insurance in this country, the business only accounts for three per cent of the premiums collected by the insurer.

He added the restrictions on travel during the coronavirus outbreak are also likely to result in fewer claims from other parts of the operation, such as group travel insurance that covers employees of participating firms who are travelling for work.

Doughty praised his employees for being “almost equally productive” in their pandemic-imposed working conditions.

He gave some credit to the firm’s investments in technology, and said a lot was learned from the experience of Manulife’s employees in Asia who are some eight to nine weeks ahead in terms of dealing with COVID-19 measures.

However, Doughty said he doesn’t expect the company to adopt working from home universally once restrictions are lifted because he views “spontaneous” collaboration in the workplace as a contributor to fresh ideas and innovation.

“I think we will continue to have a combination going forward,” he said.

At a TD Securities event this week, Manulife Financial chief executive Roy Gori said about 75 per cent of the insurer’s employees in China had gone back into work after working from home or remotely for weeks to stem the spread of COVID-19.