BNM had held a meeting with Acccim on Friday to seek the business community’s feedback on the loan moratorium.
The meeting was chaired by BNM deputy governor Jessica Chew and attended by senior officials of the central bank. Also present were Acccim president Ter Leong Yap and Socio-Economic Research Centre (SERC) executive director Lee Heng Guie.
In a statement today, Ter said the association hoped that BNM would announce the follow-up flexible repayment programme to help individuals and businesses manage through this difficult time.
Acccim also shared the findings of its survey, titled “Malaysia’s Business and Economic Conditions Survey”, for the first half of 2020 with BNM.
The survey revealed that 37% of companies indicated that they have less than three months’ cash flow to cover business operations while 42% of respondents have 3-6 months’ cash flow.
About 45.7% of total respondents need an additional six months of loan moratorium while 20.7% are asking for an additional three months.
Ter said BNM had informed the chamber that financial institutions are currently actively engaging with borrowers to offer assistance for their loan repayment and credit facilities after the end of the automatic loan moratorium in September.
Among the flexible repayments are lower monthly instalments, step-up repayments and loan tenure extension.
This targeted approach will assist sectors and borrowers that operate and work in highly vulnerable industries and sectors. It includes those that operate and work in highly vulnerable industries and sectors which would take a longer time to recover.
Ter said towards this end, the central bank had urged borrowers to make early preparations to engage with their bankers in crafting a suitable flexible repayment programme based on their financial positions and needs.
Ter said Acccim welcomed the continued proactive approaches by BNM and financial institutions to assist businesses and borrowers in the loan repayment programme to support the economic and business recovery so as to emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We would also like BNM to consider giving more flexibility in allowing any rescheduled and restructured (R&R) loans/financing not to be classified as credit-impaired in the Central Credit Reference Information System and Credit Counselling and Debt Management Agency (AKPK) until 2021,” he added.
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