KUALA LUMPUR, July 15 — SME Bank’s moratorium assistance of up to six months and an extended loan repayment period of up to 12 months is expected to benefit 3,726 customers, involving total financing of RM5.4 billion.

Group president and chief executive officer Aria Putera Ismail said the bank’s SME Relief Programme (SRP), a loan rescheduling and restructuring initiative, comes under the government’s National Well-Being and Economic Recovery Package (PEMULIH).

"Prior to this, SME Bank had offered SRP 1.0 and 2.0 packages, aimed to restore affected businesses and enable customers to manage their cash flow more effectively,” he said in a statement today.

For SRP 1.0, SME Bank had assisted a total of 3,084 customers with a financing value of RM4.1 billion, while 311 customers had benefited with financing value worth more than RM248 million from SRP 2.0.

Aria said the sectors that received SME Bank’s attention were the tourism and passenger transport sectors, arguably the most affected sectors due to the pandemic.

Other sectors that also received assistance include the services, retail and construction sectors.

Meanwhile, in its continuous efforts to provide the necessary assistance to SME entrepreneurs and addressing their financing and business issues, the bank will be organising the SME Bank XCESS 2021 programme on July 26, 2021.

The national-level business matching programme, to be held virtually, will bring together 20 anchor companies, nine private equity companies, government agencies, government-linked companies and the private sector who will offer direct assistance to the entrepreneurs in attendance. — Bernama