Covid-19: BNM Foregoes All SME & Individual Loan Repayments For 6 Months

Well amidst all this calamity, it would seem that adulting just got a little easier!

Based on an article by The Edge Markets, as a means to help with the burden on businesses and households that could be affected by Covid-19, Bank Negara Malaysia has granted an automatic moratorium on loan repayments to small and medium enterprises as well as individuals.

The advantage will last for six months, begin on the 1st of April and the payments will not be waived during said months. The new measure has also been passed on to commercial banks.

BNM noted that to ease cash flow of SMEs and individuals, the automatic moratorium will be for all loans/financing repayments/payments, principal and interest. However, the same will not be applied for credit card balances. Besides that, it is also only applicable to loans/financing involving instalments in ringgit are not overdue by over 90 days as of April 1st.

“Banking institutions should provide individuals and SMEs with adequate information on how the suspended loan or repayments will be treated during the moratorium period and options for the borrowers/customers to resume repayments/payments after the moratorium period, particularly if they anticipate that they may still face some difficulty meeting scheduled repayments/payments,” said BNM.

For credit card balances, the banks will offer customers the option to change their balances into a term loan/financing of a period not more than three years with an effective interest/profit rate of not more than 13% per year.

What do you think about this? Let us know in the comments!

Also read: “If there is an exponential spike, we would have to choose who uses the ventilators,”- Health D-G