Singapore’s central bank said local lenders will offer additional relief for consumers and companies battered by the sharp economic slowdown, including a freeze on mortgage and business loan payments and cuts to credit card rates.
Banks and finance companies can defer both principal and interest payments for qualified clients with residential mortgages through December 31, the Monetary Authority of Singapore said in a statement yesterday.
Small and medium-sized firms can opt to defer principal payments on their secured term loans until the end of the year, the MAS said.
The central bank’s latest loan relief adds to several other fiscal and monetary measures the city state is employing after the coronavirus pandemic induced the worst economic downturn in a decade in the first quarter.
More than S$40bn ($28bn) of existing loan facilities to small businesses will likely qualify for the relief plan.
“The shock to the economy from the Covid-19 outbreak is unprecedented,” Samuel Tsien, chairman of the Association of Banks in Singapore, said in the statement. “We must take extraordinary measures to address not just a health crisis, but what has developed to become a deep global economic crisis.”
Given deep capital buffers, ample liquidity and low leverage, Singapore lenders “are well placed to not only ride out the economic storm caused by Covid-19, but also provide meaningful relief to individuals and SMEs affected by the crisis,” MAS managing director Ravi Menon said in the release.
DBS Group Holdings Ltd, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp and United Overseas Bank Ltd, Singapore’s three largest lenders, are already taking steps to help small firms and individual clients by various measures that include deferring principal repayments and liquidity relief.
The new measures will also allow life and health insurance policy holders to defer premium payments for up to six months, while customers with property and auto insurance policies can set up an installment payment plan. “Deferring payments increases future obligations and hence borrowers and policy holders should weigh their options carefully,” the MAS said. “Financial institutions will process all applications expeditiously.”
Companies, including SMEs, holding general insurance policies that protect their business and property risks may apply to their insurer for installment payment plans.
Banks and finance companies may apply for low-cost funding through a new Singapore-dollars facility for loans granted under Enterprise Singapore. Homeowners can apply for up to nine months relief on principal payments and/or interest payments on their mortgages.
Interest will continue to accrue on the deferred principal amount.
Consumers with credit card balances whose income has been cut by 25% or more can apply for a term loan of as many as five years. The rate would be capped at 8%, compared with 26% typically charged.
Banks can also access the $60bn of MAS funding established on March 26 Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat last week unveiled a second fiscal support package of S$48bn to help businesses and consumers hurt by the virus outbreak.
Gross domestic product fell an annualised 10.6% in the first quarter from the previous three months, and the government projected a severe recession for the full year.
Singapore’s central bank also took unprecedented easing steps Monday to support the trade-reliant economy.
The MAS, which uses the exchange rate as its main policy tool rather than a benchmark interest rate, lowered the midpoint of the currency band and reduced the slope to zero.
The DBS Group Holdings logo is displayed atop Tower 3 of the Marina Bay Financial Centre in Singapore.
