iscover Loan deferrals surge past $200bn
BusinessOver $200 billion worth of loans have now been deferred as businesses and home owners turn to the banks for support to ride out the COVID-19 crisis.
The Australian Banking Association has now revealed that the banks have now deferred at least 643,000 loans, with an extra 100,000 loans approved for deferral in just the past week.
Just over 60 per cent of all loans were related to home loans, with the remaining 251,000 loans related to business loan repayments, personal loans and credit cards.
ABA chief executive Anna Bligh said the surge in loan deferral approvals showed that the financial impact of the crisis was still unfolding and customers continued to need support from their bank to get through it.
“The total value of loans which has been deferred has increased by at least $20 billion in just one week,” Ms Bligh said.
“These new figures, released today, show banks working overtime to ensure assistance is given where needed to customers who are affected by this crisis.
“The surge in demand for assistance from banks shows that the economic impacts continue to be felt, and by no means is the nation through this crisis.”
The new statistics come after the banks announced six-month loan deferrals as an emergency support measure to business in late March.
The major banks were also later pulled in by the Treasurer to provide bridging finance to businesses so they could help pay their employees before receiving the JobKeeper reimbursement from the ATO.
Jotham Lian
Jotham Lian is the editor of Accountants Daily, the leading source of breaking news, analysis and insight for Australian accounting professionals.
Before joining the team in 2017, Jotham wrote for a range of national mastheads including the Sydney Morning Herald, and Channel NewsAsia.
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