Alliance Bank, CGC team up to provide financing to SMEs

PETALING JAYA: Alliance Bank Malaysia Bhd has inked an agreement with Credit Guarantee Corp Malaysia Bhd (CGC) to provide fast and simple financing to small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

The bank said through CGC’s portfolio guarantee scheme, it can help eligible SMEs that lack adequate collateral or credit track record, obtain hassle-free, working capital financing to grow their businesses.

“The process requires minimal documentation and CGC covers up to 70% of the principal financing amount on a portfolio basis. The financing amount is for a minimum of RM100,000 and a maximum of RM1 million per SME account, with financing tenure of up to seven years,” Alliance Bank said in a statement.

This portfolio guarantee agreement has a tranche size of RM300 million, and forms part of the build-up to a RM1 billion portfolio with CGC by 2020.

Through the partnership with CGC, Alliance Bank has already approved RM330 million in loans from previous tranches to help about 750 SME businesses who provide employment to almost 13,750 people.

The new RM300 million tranche will allow Alliance Bank to finance another 600 plus SMEs to expand their businesses.

Alliance Bank CEO Joel Kornreich said the bank is committed to creating easy access to financing and providing innovative solutions to address the pain points faced by business owners at different stages of their businesses.

“We want to create additional avenues to help our SME customers expand by collaborating with CGC.”

To date, CGC has availed over RM14 billion worth of financing via its portfolio guarantee scheme which has benefited more than 27,000 SMEs.

Malaysian-owned business establishments in the country of at least three years are eligible to apply for Alliance Bank-CGC portfolio guarantee scheme.