(By Yan Haau-Ling)
Affected by the novel pneumonia epidemic, Hong Kong's economic activity has recently become frozen. Following the launch of five measures, including "repayment of interest do not cover the principal" the day before, BOC Hong Kong (2388) had received many inquiries yesterday. So it decides to extend "repayment of interest do not cover the principal" to Mortgage Insurance Plan Loans (MIP), to reduce the burden on customers. Besides, successively, there are other banks that plan to launch similar support measures such as BOC's "repayment of interest do not cover the principal." Hang Seng (0011) and Bank of East Asia (0023) have stated that they will arrange for individual customers to "repay interest do not cover the principal" according to their situation.
BOC Hong Kong said yesterday that they received a lot of customer inquiries mainly about the application conditions and methods related to the measures after the launch of the anti-epidemic support measures the day before yesterday. So the bank announces to extend further the Property mortgage loan measure of "repayment of interest do not cover the principal" to the Mortgage Insurance Plan Loans (MIP), to benefit more customers in need, and the approval results will depend on the circumstances of individual customers.
Hang Seng does not charge a service fee for SME's "Express Loan."
A Hang Seng spokesman said yesterday that the bank could arrange "repayment of interest do not cover the principal" for different types of products if customers in trade loans, commercial loans, property loans, etc. are in need. But the bank reiterated that "repayment of interest do not cover the principal" would be limited to business clients, not individuals. Hang Seng continued to point out that it is communicating with customers to understand their needs and difficulties. Besides, from now until June 30 of this year, the SMEs which apply for "Express Loan" online can enjoy free handling fee; customers of the "SME Financing Guarantee Plan" will continue to receive full funding for the first year of guarantee fee, with an upper limit of HKD100,000.
To cope with the economic impact of the novel coronavirus outbreak, the BEA(Bank of East Asia) also stated yesterday that BEA understands the specific difficulties of some individual and corporate customers face, and actively provides assistance to some individuals and corporate customers in need. The assistances include permission of customers applying for "temporary repayment of interest do not cover the principal" or restructuring the loan, etc., under some established requirements of the bank (such as the regular operation of the account). The specific method will depend on the circumstances of individual customers.
China CITIC Bank launches "repayment of interest do not cover the principal" for one year to help SMEs.
China CITIC Bank (International) also announced yesterday to launch "Special Support of Private Installment Loans for SME Holders," providing a 12-month "repayment of interest do not cover the principal" to support SMEs in tide over difficulties. The bank pointed out that the assisted objects are SME holders with no more than 50 employees, with the loan amounts at HKD80,000 and HKD150,000, respectively, and the repayment period for 24 months. Successful applicants only need to repay interest do not cover the principal to the bank in the first 12 installments. The principal and interest will be repaid from the 13th installment. The applicant does not need to provide any collateral or pay any application fees. But they must be holders or shareholders of locally incorporated companies, and the company must also be incorporated in Hong Kong for 24 months or more. Besides, the average bank account balance of them in the last three months must reach the specified amount. After the required documents are collected, the bank can generally confirm the approval results within five working days.
