Over 33,000 benefited from UOB Malaysia's Covid-19 relief aid

UOB Malaysia CEO Wong Kim Choong said, “The bank saw a 120% increase in the number of individual, microenterprise and SME customers applying between June and September 2021."

KUALA LUMPUR: UOB Malaysia’s Covid-19 Relief Assistance1 has benefitted more than 33,000 individual, microenterprises and small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) customers since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In a statement on Monday, it said as at Sept 24, more than RM23.8bil worth of relief assistance have been extended to these customers to overcome the financial impact caused by the prolonged movement restrictions.

UOB Malaysia said it has been proactively assisting affected customers under its assistance programme through various forms of financial repayment moratoriums and targeted repayment assistance since the initial stages of the pandemic in March 2020.

Importantly, the bank has also revised its repayment assistance in support of the various initiatives announced by the government throughout 2020 and 2021.

In July 2021, UOB Malaysia further enhanced its Covid-19 Relief Assistance programme in line with the government’s PEMULIH aid package.

UOB Malaysia CEO Wong Kim Choong said, “The bank saw a 120% increase in the number of individual, microenterprise and SME customers applying between June and September 2021.

“Amid the jump in the number of applications for the past three months, we continued to maintain close to a 100 per cent approval rate of total loans and financing applied under the bank’s Covid-19 Relief Assistance programme.

“We will continue to offer support to customers requiring financial assistance to safeguard their lives and livelihoods during these trying times, even as we are seeing a gradual reopening of the economy.”

The bank said UOB Covid-19 Relief Assistance applications are still open for individuals, microenterprises and SMEs.

Under the PEMULIH aid package, customers can opt for a six-month moratorium of instalments or a 50% reduction on monthly repayment instalments for six months, as an alternative.

The bank said businesses whose financial situation continues to be impacted by the pandemic may contact their respective relationship managers.