United Overseas Bank (UOB) announced on February 12 that its allocation of S$3 billion to provide companies, especially small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), in Singapore with relief assistance to tide over the negative impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on their business.
In the face of the likely economic fallout and its impact on industries and businesses, UOB sees the need to help its corporate clients, in particular the SMEs, in addressing their near-term liquidity needs. The Bank’s relief measures aim to enable those affected companies, who have good track records and who have been servicing their repayments promptly, to have more flexibility in their cash flow management.
These measures include allowing affected businesses to rework their principal repayments and to service only their loan interest for up to one year and extending up to one year working capital financing of up to S$5 million. Financing liquidity against mortgage security will also be offered.
Mr Wee Ee Cheong, Deputy Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, UOB, said, “In these particularly trying times, the government, businesses and communities are doing their very best to overcome this immediate challenge.”
“For most companies, especially the SMEs, cash flow and financing are key to them sustaining their business. As their long-term banking partner, we believe our added support can help alleviate the business disruption and pressure from the ripple effect of the epidemic,” he concluded.
Maybank is also offering financial relief to its customers who are impacted by the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak. These include restructuring & rescheduling of financing, as well as moratorium on loan repayments for up to six months.
The financial relief will be open to both its business and SME customers as well as individuals affected by the current situation, and will be assessed on a case-to-case basis.
“We do understand that this sudden turn of events arising from the virus outbreak have impacted some of our customers across various industries, and also individually,” said Group President & CEO, Datuk Abdul Farid Alias.
“As their financial partner, we would like to do our part and help relieve them from added distress during this difficult period, in line with our mission of humanizing financial services,” he concluded.
