Banks extend targeted loan repayment assistance

PETALING JAYA: Major banks have announced plans to extend targeted loan repayment assistance for individuals and small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) once the six-month loan moratorium ends on Sept 30, 2020.

CIMB Bank Bhd and CIMB Islamic Bank Bhd, for instance, yesterday said the group had employed data analytics to identify those potentially most affected and will be proactively engaging these customers with regards to the bank’s targeted repayment assistance programme post-moratorium.

Public Bank Bhd also announced it had developed a loan repayment assistance programme to support retrenched customers or those facing salary reductions, as well as SME customers with cash flow constraints due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

In a statement, CIMB group said an SMS would be sent to more than 300,000 individuals and 10,000 SMES from today, advising its customers to follow the simple instructions and complete their applications by Aug 20, 2020.

Under the programme, individual customers/borrowers who have lost their jobs since Jan 1, 2020, and who remain unemployed, would be given a three-month payment relief, announced the bank.

Individual customers/borrowers who have suffered a decline in income would be eligible for a commensurate reduction of monthly payments for at least six months, which would include hire purchase financing, where affected customers would be offered revised monthly payments, together with an extension of tenure

Lastly, it said affected SMES, corporates and individuals would be offered several options including an extension of the existing relief programme, profit/interest servicing only, possible extension of the loan/financing tenure to enable lower monthly instalments and amending other terms and conditions of the loan/financing where appropriate.

Meanwhile, Public Bank managing director and chief executive officer Tan Sri Tay Ah Lek said the bank’s repayment assistance packages have been carefully structured, taking into consideration our customers’ temporary cash flow constraints.

“These packages will enable our customers to gradually readjust their financial positions over an extended period of time,” he said in a statement yesterday.

The bank will offer a three-month extension of the loan moratorium starting Oct 1, 2020 to customers who have lost their jobs in 2020 and are currently unemployed.