{"id":3984,"date":"2020-05-23T13:13:45","date_gmt":"2020-05-23T05:13:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?p=3984"},"modified":"2020-05-23T13:14:33","modified_gmt":"2020-05-23T05:14:33","slug":"bank-rakyat-gives-moratorium-on-rm6-billion-payment-obligations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?p=3984","title":{"rendered":"Bank Rakyat gives moratorium on RM6 billion payment obligations"},"content":{"rendered":"
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KUALA LUMPUR, May 23\u00a0\u00a0– Bank Rakyat has granted\u00a0its customers a moratorium on repayments totalling\u00a0RM6 billion, according to\u00a0chief executive officer\u00a0Datuk Rosman Mohamed.<\/p>\n

During\u00a0the six-month period of the moratorium, the country\u2019s largest\u00a0Islamic cooperative bank was refraining\u00a0from\u00a0collecting\u00a0about RM1 billion every month,\u00a0he said.<\/p>\n

But despite the huge\u00a0amount involved, Rosman described\u00a0the effort as highly necessary\u00a0to assist\u00a0society during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cAssistance should not come just from\u00a0the government;\u00a0the whole community must chip in. Everyone\u00a0must give\u00a0their solid support in getting\u00a0our economy back on track,\u201d he said during an interview on Bernama TV\u2019s \u201cRuang Bicara\u201d programme yesterday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Notwithstanding the bank\u2019s caring nature,\u00a0it is strict in terms of follow-ups and debt recovery process.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are studying ways to ensure we can collect on the loans (after the moratorium period ends). We will do so\u00a0tactfully but at the same time, we must also give\u00a0advice\u00a0to the borrowers. This is a shared responsibility.\u00a0If\u00a0you want Bank Rakyat to be successful —\u00a0if you want the bank\u00a0to keep paying dividends, taxes and zakat —\u00a0then\u00a0it needs to move forward,\u201d Rosman said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The bank has nearly 900,000 shareholders. He said\u00a070 per cent of them were\u00a0from the Bottom 40 per cent household income (B40) group.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Bank Rakyat, which\u00a0has about\u00a01.3 million customers and RM109 billion in assets,\u00a0reported\u00a0a group net profit of RM1.15 billion for the financial year ended Dec 31,\u00a02019, and declared\u00a0a 14 per cent dividend.<\/p>\n

For borrowers from the B40 group that faced\u00a0difficulties\u00a0paying back\u00a0even after the end of the moratorium period, Rosman\u00a0said, Bank Rakyat would ensure\u00a0they could still enjoy some\u00a0flexibility in terms of repayment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He, however,\u00a0explained that the bank had to absorb certain\u00a0costs when it gave\u00a0the six-month deferment on payment obligations.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, the bank needs to perform, survive and thrive. If the bank is not successful, how can it help empower the economy in the future?\u201d Rosman said.<\/p>\n

In addition to introducing\u00a0the moratorium as part of the Prihatin Rakyat Economic Stimulus Package, Bank Rakyat has\u00a0allocated RM300 million under the Bank Rakyat Cares (BRCares) campaign that runs until Sept 30.<\/p>\n

The campaign focuses on helping\u00a0cooperatives, the small and medium enterprises (SMEs), women entrepreneurs and micro businesses as well as retail-based businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have earmarked\u00a0RM50 million for women entrepreneurs, RM50 million for micro entrepreneurs and RM200 million for small cooperatives and SMEs. The whole idea is\u00a0to help them. We even give a nine-month grace period (before borrowers have to pay the\u00a0first instalment),\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

Going forward, Rosman\u00a0said Bank Rakyat planned to open\u00a0more mini branches, especially in remote areas\u00a0in Sabah and Sarawak which\u00a0lack\u00a0banking and financial services. This\u00a0may be a\u00a0combination of a mini branch\u00a0and Ar-Rahnu (Islamic pawn shop).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are also looking as a similar set-up in the peninsula, such as in\u00a0Kelantan and Terengganu,\u201d he said, adding that\u00a0the plan\u00a0must, however, be carefully studied as it involved capital expenditure and operational costs.<\/p>\n

Currently, Bank Rakyat has 147 branches with more than 990 automated teller machines and cash deposit machines\u00a0as well as 183 Ar-Rahnu X\u2019Change outlets throughout the country.<\/p>\n

As for overseas expansion, he said Brunei and Indonesia appeared\u00a0to be attractive.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not ready\u00a0(to venture\u00a0overseas) at present. However, Bank Rakyat is a major player in the Ar-Rahnu market, with a 50 per cent share. Recently, the\u00a0Brunei government requested for collaboration with us. That may be a start.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere may also be things that we can do\u00a0in Indonesia. But to do that (go overseas), I must ensure Bank Rakyat is internally stable.\u00a0If we suffered\u00a0a loss, it would impact the bank as a whole,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

– BERNAMA<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KUALA LUMPUR, May 23\u00a0\u00a0– Bank Rakyat has granted\u00a0its customers a moratorium on repayments totalling\u00a0RM6 billion,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3986,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,7574],"tags":[10144],"class_list":["post-3984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-covid19","tag-bank-rakyat"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/bank-rakyat.jpg",742,468,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/bank-rakyat-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/bank-rakyat-300x189.jpg",300,189,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/bank-rakyat.jpg",640,404,false],"large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/bank-rakyat.jpg",640,404,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/bank-rakyat.jpg",742,468,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/bank-rakyat.jpg",742,468,false],"newsium-slider-full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/bank-rakyat.jpg",742,468,false],"newsium-featured":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/bank-rakyat.jpg",742,468,false],"newsium-medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/bank-rakyat.jpg",720,454,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Editor"]},"category_info":"Business<\/a> COVID19<\/a>","tag_info":"COVID19","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3984"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3988,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3984\/revisions\/3988"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}