KUALA LUMPUR (March 15): AmBank Group Bhd and Credit Guarantee Corporation Malaysia Bhd (CGC) have extended their financing facilities worth RM400 million under the SME Portfolio Guarantee Scheme to support small and medium enterprises (SMEs) post-pandemic.

The RM400 million additional financing will be executed under AmBank’s Retail SME channel.

Ambank Group chief executive officer Datuk Sulaiman Mohd Tahir said the scheme comes at the right time as the economy is opening up and SMEs are seen active with activities.

“We want to support them because there are huge requirements today in terms of financing facilities.

“Gross domestic product (GDP) growth has been more than 8% in 2022 and there’s a lot of spillover in terms of activities. So, because of that, we thought it’s [a] very opportune time for us to do it,” he told reporters after the scheme’s signing ceremony here on Wednesday (March 15).

He said since its launch in 2016, the Retail SME Portfolio Guarantee Scheme has reached a total of RM3 billion, benefiting over 4,000 SME businesses in the nation.

“In total group-wide, we have provided about RM4.5 billion worth of financing in collaboration with CGC, reaching out to more than 5,000 SMEs,” he added.

Meanwhile, CGC president and chief executive officer Datuk Mohd Zamree Mohd Ishak said over the last seven years, the CGC-AmBank Retail SME partnership has strengthened, delivering 17 Portfolio Guarantees tranches worth RM3 billion and benefiting over 4,000 micro small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

“These additional RM400 million financing facilities offering working capital are aimed to support MSMEs, especially those in e-commerce, a segment with vast potential for growth,” he said.

Under the scheme, eligible SMEs can apply for financing facilities of up to RM1 million from AmBank with a repayment tenure of up to seven years, of which 70% of the principal financing amount will be guaranteed by CGC and approved within one day.

Besides that, the new tranche continues to finance the e-commerce segment with a loan amount from RM20,000 to RM200,000 which applies to companies operating for more than two years.

Additionally, the partnership continues to provide financing access to SMEs that require financing without the need to put in collateral as the CGC guarantee fee is borne by AmBank.

Separately, existing AmBank merchant customers with certain eligibility are qualified to apply for AmBank Pay-As-You-Grow (PAYG) Unsecured Term Loan, which bundles with Merchant Point-of-Sales (POS) and Deposit Account.

PAYG, the first and one-of-its-kind unsecured loan that is bundled with the merchant facility, is a loan with zero fee and collaterals based on the merchant’s past months card sales performance in determining the amount of loan to be granted.