SCB pursues assistance for flood-hit SME clients with three programs

To continue its relief efforts for SME clients affected by the ongoing severe flooding, Siam Commercial Bank has established Emergency Assistance, Rehabilitation, and Moving Forward measures to accelerate rebuilding businesses and enable them to resume operation as soon as possible.

Speaking of the relief measures for SME clients, SCB Senior Executive Vice President Sirichai Sombutsiri, Head of the SCB Business Banking Group, reiterated that the Bank is determined to provide full assistance for SME clients with businesses adversely affected by the devastating floods.

“With a profound understanding of the severe hardships faced by clients, we have instructed our staff to call them immediately to closely monitor their situation without having to contact us first.”

To ensure that assistance is provided in a timely and continuous manner, SCB has forged ahead with its relief efforts for its SME clients with the following three measures:

Emergency Assistance: Upon knowing that clients and their business are affected by the deluge, SCB rushes to take care of them by arranging debt restructuring, a grace period of principal and interest for 6 months, 50% interest reduction for the first 3 months, and an increase in overdraft (O/D) lines of up to 20%. This relief measure has been implemented since the inundation broke out.
Rehabilitation: SCB has joined with the state-owned Small Industry Credit Guarantee Corporation to provide loan support for SMEs in an amount of up to 10 million baht with a 7-year term and a fixed lending rate of 3% for first 3 years to ensure they have enough working capital for business recovery at a low cost. Bank clients are able to participate in the loan program immediately when they sign a memorandum of understanding. In the event clients want additional credit lines, the Bank is ready to provide a 3-year recovery loan with first year interest at 5%. Loan amount approval will be given as deemed appropriate.
Moving Forward: Aside from financial support for SME clients, the Bank has encouraged its Wholesale Banking Group to play an active role in helping the country’s economic system and supply chain system recover quickly to ensure SMEs and major businesses move ahead together.

“With the implementation of comprehensive and timely assistance measures, we firmly believe our SME clients will be able to recover and resume their usual business operations very soon. For further enquiries, our clients can contact the Business Call Center at 02-722-2222,” said Mr. Sirichai.