Financial institutions extend further help to customers in need
On the 3rd of December 2015, a Bank employee counting money at the counter of the Head quarter of Acleda Bank on Monivong Bvd in Phnom Penh.
The Association of Banks in Cambodia (ABC) and the Cambodia Microfinance Association (CMA) have come up with temporary payment relief measures for customers who have suffered from COVID-19 or those impacted negatively by the pandemic.
In a joint statement, it said that after holding discussions with all those in the financial industry, they have decided to provide additional interventions to help clients affected by COVID-19 who are going through a difficult moment of time.
ABC and CMA said they have decided that for customers who were victims of COVID-19, they would give them a one-month interest exemption, waive penalties and automatic loan repayment (if the client agrees) with a three-month principal payment deferral.
To get this, the family members of the COVID-19 positive client must produce a positive COVID-19 test result issued by a competent authority to the financial institution concerned.
As for quarantined customers, it said that the loan is automatically re-organised for repayment (if the customer agrees), including a one-month deferral of principal and interest payments, and all penalties are waived.
It added that the banks and microfinance will continue to provide whatever assistance possible to clients affected by COVID-19.
It said that they would also provide emergency or supplementary loans for customers who need to ease their financial difficulties incurred due to the coronavirus pandemic.
It said they will also arrange loans and waive penalties for those who buy their first house besides giving benefits and assistance to families of clients who died due to COVID-19, according to the means of the respective banks and microfinance institutions.
It added that last year, Cambodian banks and financial institutions have been actively involved in helping clients affected by COVID-19 through loan repayment. At of the end of February 2021, about 340,000 customers were given a special loan repayment scheme that involved a sum of about $4 billion.
On Tuesday, more than 100 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have called on microfinance institutions (MFIs) and banks to defer loan repayments due to borrowers facing financial difficulties owing to the impact of the February 20 Community Event.
The NGOs, which include Building and Wood Workers Trade Union Federation of Cambodia (BWTUC), Cambodian Alliance of Trade Unions (CATU), Center for Alliance of Labour and Human Rights (CENTRAL), Independent Democracy of Informal Economy Association (IDEA), and League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (LICADHO), urged the government to intervene and get MFIs and banks to suspend all loan repayments and interest accrual for at least three months.
It said this was to allow borrowers to cope with the current COVID-19 situation and its impact on them with many having lost their jobs, coping with salary cuts or even having to stay home for fear of contracting the disease. Khmer Times
