Shift to targeted bank assistance is a good call by govt

THE anxiety among the rakyat over whether banks would extend the six-month moratorium on loan repayments after September was answered by Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin in his announcement on Wednesday of targeted moratorium extensions (“Targeted moratorium extension for another three months”, The Star, July 29; online at bit.ly/star_banks).

The loan repayment moratorium has provided huge relief for many individuals and businesses: as at July 20, over 7.7 million individual borrowers (93% of the total) have benefited from the measure worth RM38.3bil. And 243,000 SMEs (small and medium enterprises), or 95% of the total, have also utilised the measure for a total of RM20.7bil. In total, the value of the moratorium is RM59bil.