Kuala Lumpur
RHB Bank and RHB Islamic Bank are offering a moratorium of up to six months for monthly instalment payments, or the restructuring or rescheduling (R&R) of loans and financing for customers affected by Covid-19. In a statement, the banking group said the R&R treatment will be made available to viable businesses, which includes SMEs as well as individuals. RHB Banking Group group managing director Datuk Khairussaleh Ramli said RHB’s Covid-19 financial relief programme had been in place since Feb 11, to help ease the financial burden of businesses particularly SMEs and households during this challenging period. “We have so far received 119 applications from customers across all segments involving total financing of about RM1.15bil. We have also proactively identified 168 SME customers in heavily impacted sectors, such as tourism and food and beverage, who are in need of financial assistance. “A 6-month moratorium is being offered to assist them during this challenging period. The bank will continue to proactively reach out to affected SMEs to ease their financial burden,”he said in the statement. In addition to RHB’s Financial Relief Programme, Bank Negara is also providing a RM2bil special relief facility (SRF), which will be deployed in the form of working capital to assist SMEs in alleviating short term cash flow problems. “This is part of Bank Negara Malaysia’s Fund for SMEs, which was made available starting March 6. To-date we have already received 135 applications totaling more than RM100mil,” Khairussaleh said. The fund for SMEs comprises three components, namely the SRF and Agrofood Facility (AF) to increase food production, with an allocation of RM1bil and the SME Automation and Digitalisation Facility (ADF) to incentivise SMEs to automate processes and digitalise operations, with an allocation of RM300mil With the exception of AF which runs from March 6 onwards, the SRF and ADF are valid from March until Dec 31, 2020.—Agencies
