KUALA LUMPUR: Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) in collaboration with Credit Guarantee Corp Malaysia Bhd (CGC) and banks in the country have rolled out targeted loan facilities to help businesses weather the impact of the war in the Middle East.
The war has created ripple effects across global supply chains, energy prices and trade flows. For Malaysian small and medium enterprises (SMEs), disruptions have translated into tighter cash flows, delayed collections, and rising operational costs, leading many to seek financial assistance.
BNM and CGC’s latest schemes offer a combined RM15bil lifeline for businesses under stress. Despite the availability of funds, banks face recurring issues with SME loan applications, panellists said at the Sasana Symposium 2026.
Among the issues are incomplete financial records. Many SMEs lack audited accounts or proper bookkeeping, relying only on basic bank statements. They also display weak business plans. Applications often fail to demonstrate sustainable cash flow or clear repayment capacity.
Some borrowers misunderstand lending principles, attempting to divert financing to non-business purposes.
Noor Mohamed Amin, group chief commercial banking officer at MBSB Bank, said SMEs need to address the weaknesses and applications must also explain to the banker the purpose of the loan.
“From the bank’s point of view, we don’t only provide financing. The bank can also provide a lot of other things such as tax management, halal certification and opening up new market opportunities including exports opportunities.
“Some SMEs may think that if I have a good kind of financial report, that would guarantee the bank will provide financing. Banks sometimes look beyond that. The bank wants to understand where the business and its plans are moving forward. Banks want to have a customer to bank tomorrow and the day after,” he said in a podcast titled Partners in Progress: Banks and Malaysia’s Economic Transformation on the sidelines of the Sasana Symposium.
He added local banks are increasingly positioning themselves as partners rather than mere lenders. They can offer digital solutions such as accounting software, human resources systems, and e-invoicing platforms integrated with banks for auto-reconciliation. Banks can also provide capacity building by training SMEs in eCommerce, customer loyalty programs, and financial planning as well as entrepreneurship programs that guide startups through planning, execution, and scaling.
To better improve application loan chances, the panellists said borrowers should prepare clear business plans showing growth trajectory and cash flow sustainability. They should engage proactively with relationship managers to ask the right questions and explore beyond financing.
Sean Tan, chief business officer at CGC, said SMEs owners can leverage bank statements if audited reports are unavailable, allowing banks to assess patterns of cash flow of the business. Businesses must also be transparent about intended use of funds whether for working capital, asset financing or expansion.
He said there are RM15bil worth of assistance funds are now available for SMEs that have experienced a 15% or more drop in revenue due to the impact of the conflict.
BNM introduced the RM5bil Stabilisation Relief Facility (SRF) which offers up to RM750,000 loans to small and medium enterprises (SME) at an interest rate of 3.75% for loans up to five years.
The facility is targeted at the transportation, manufacturing, construction, retail and agriculture sectors and is meant to provide short-term relief to sustain cash flow, not expansion financing.
Tan said response to the SRF has been good with approximately RM2bil taken up.
BNM and CGC also launched the Guarantee Scheme with a RM10bil fund size. This facility is structured around four pillars – namely financial inclusion which offers RM2bil in total for startups and new enterprises, as well as climate and sustainability which are green loans to curb carbon emissions.
There is also a RM2bil allocation under a productivity pillar and RM2bil for manufacturers investing in automation/digitalisation. The final pillar is resilience where funds are targeted at food security and agriculture-focused financing.
Apart from that, Tan said CGC also offers wholesale guarantee, which is a risk-sharing portfolio instrument that helps financial institutions provide unsecured or partially secured financing to SMEs, with CGC covering up to 70% to 80% of credit risk.
The agency also has a mid-tier company guarantee which extends support to firms with turnover up to RM500mil, offering facilities up to RM20mil per application and an accumulative group limit up to RM60mil.
To make things easier for SMEs, CGC has a portal that can offer financing and loan referral platforms. “CGC has the imSME portal that puts all the banks’ financing features and products together. When an individual or business owner logs in to this imSME, they will be able to see financing options from the banks they want.
“If they fill up the information into the portal, and click, the imSME can populate what are the suitable financing products and solutions to the individual or SME.”
