KUALA LUMPUR, April 7 ― CIMB Bank Berhad and CIMB Islamic Bank Berhad have pledged at least RM12 billion for the B40’s access to facilities such as home, auto, ASB and personal financing for this year and next year.

In a statement, CIMB pointed out that the B40 segment made up a significant percentage of both its CIMB bank and CIMB Retail's customer base since 2016.

"Being particularly mindful of the B40 segment, CIMB has taken extra steps to ensure that our lending policies are financially inclusive. To that end, through CIMB Bank and CIMB Islamic, we have targeted to disburse RM12 billion to the B40 segment as home, auto, ASB or personal financing for the period 2019-2020, and we will not stop there.

"We will continue to find ways to assist the B40 segment, whether through our business operations, or corporate responsibility initiatives,” Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Aziz, Group CEO of CIMB Group said in the statement.

The statement added that an example of CIMB Bank and CIMB Islamic’s commitment to assist the B40 segment is through their lowest-in-market financing rate of 2.9 per cent p.a., under Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) Fund for Affordable Homes, as well as a RM1 billion-fund to help the B40’s purchase their first residential property.

CIMB also has the Taylor’s-CIMB Islamic entrepreneurial programme which has trained, mentored and provided grants totaling RM500,000 to over 100 small business owners from Kuala Lumpur’s Projek Perumahan Rakyat.

"For 2019, a further RM2 million has been allocated for the programme to empower more small business owners from the B40 segment,” the statement added.