Group President & CEO Datuk Abdul Farid Alias said that the Maybank Group will continue to place strong emphasis in operational resilience, creating digital solutions and supporting its customers to ensure their business viability, including the SME segment which is a critical component of the economy.
“Our main intent has been to see our customers through this period and to support the domestic economies of our home markets. We are committed to help keep them afloat, support employment and prevent business failures in the near term,” he explained.
“As such, we have worked with our home market regulators to lead discussions and roll-out solutions that help provide temporary reprieve to cash flow constraints many are experiencing as a result of supply and demand disruptions and labour market dislocation.”
Datuk Farid said that in Malaysia, more than 70% of Maybank’s loan book is currently under moratorium, relief or rescheduling & restructuring programmes.
“For the SME segment, around 88% of our SME outstanding loans are under the six month moratorium,” he added. “Maybank has approved up to RM2.1 billion of BNM’s Special Relief Fund (SRF) aimed at providing funding assistance, which is a 77% approval rate from applications we have received. Our total financing to SMEs, including that under the SRF for the first 5 months of this year stands at RM4.9 billion which is an 85% approval rate.”
He also said that in Singapore, the Group was seeing a gradual take-up of the moratorium and relief programmes made available and have engaged over 2,300 Retail SME and Business Banking customers. Meanwhile, Maybank Indonesia has engaged almost all its non-retail debtors including 80 corporate customers and 7,700 Community Financial Services non retail customers to assess their business conditions and proactively engage them on restructuring, where needed.
Datuk Farid added that other priorities for 2020 include pursuing income-related leads through selective loan expansion in line with the Group’s risk appetite, non-interest income growth through its investment and trading portfolio as well as debt capital market deals, in addition to prioritising CASA growth as a cheaper funding source to mitigate NIM compression.
The Group will also continue with its existing cost management discipline, while proactively engaging borrowers who are facing tighter cash flow conditions, including oil and gas borrowers given the low oil prices, to render the necessary support needed.
