KUALA LUMPUR, March 17 (Bernama) -- Agrobank has announced a suite of measures, aiming to provide relief to customers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The relief includes restructuring and rescheduling of financing, as well as moratorium on financing repayments for up to six months.

Covering President / Chief Executive Officer (P/CEO) of Agrobank, Khadijah Iskandar said “We value our long-term relationships with clients, hence the financial relief would be made available to both of our business and small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) customers as well as individuals affected by the current situation and would be assessed on a case-to-case basis.”

“We trust the relief measures, coupled with the RM20 billion stimulus package announced by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) recently, will bring better prospects for continued economic growth in Malaysia,” she added.

BNM has allocated RM3.3bil in total to help SME to sustain their business operations, safeguard jobs and encourage domestic investments through Special Relief Facility (SRF), Agrofood Facility (AF) and SME Automation and Digitalisation Facility (ADF).

All three facilities are available via participating financial institutions including Agrobank. Proactively, the Bank has identified the affected customers who are eligible for the stimulus package.

“Whilst the full reaching human and economic impacts of COVID-19 are still largely unknown and evolving, the focus, at this crucial stage, is preeminently on how Agrobank can help to manage the impact on our customers, staff, communities and partners,” she further commented.

The Bank is also prepared to extend maturity period of trade financing and working capital financing in order to help economic operators safeguard jobs, alleviate cash-flow problems and ensure business continuity.

In response to the announcement made by the Government on the Movement Control Order from March 18 until March 31, Agrobank branches will remain open as usual. Agrobank is also talking up its online and mobile banking capabilities to customers as to encourage more Malaysians to avoid public places amid the coronavirus outbreak.

“We strongly encourage our customers to fully utilise our internet banking facilities for both AGRONet and AGRONetBIZ and also our mobile app, AGRONet. We want to make sure our customers are fully aware that they can bank, invest, and make payments from wherever they are, particularly if they’re not able to come to our branch for any of their banking needs,” said Khadijah.

Customers can call the bank’s customer contact centre at 1-300-88-2476 or visit the nearest branch to enquire more information on the assistance available.
 
ABOUT AGROBANK

Agrobank is a leader in agriculture financing and values-based banking based (VBI)* in Malaysia. Established in 1969, Agrobank is actively involved in charting the growth and development of Malaysia’s agriculture industry by offering shariah compliant products and solutions across various customer segments including corporate, commercial, consumer, trade finance and micro financing customers. Agrobank is a full-fledged Islamic bank since 1^st July 2015.

As a market driven, customer-centric DFI (Development Financial Institution) with a primary focus on strengthening the agriculture sector in Malaysia, Agrobank strikes an equal balance to its developmental and commercial roles to benefit the agriculture sector. Agrobank provides a comprehensive repertoire of financing solutions for the agriculture community; that includes upstream activities related to primary food and commodities-based agriculture activities to downstream activities such as processing, marketing and distribution of agricultural products.

Agrobank also offers retail banking financing solutions to improve the well-being of the agriculture community. This is done through its network of 192 customer touch points including 138 branches, 1 agro banking, 1 virtual banking, 10 commercial financing centre, 34 kiosk, 8 agro corners & agro point.

In 2019, Agrobank celebrates its golden jubilee Anniversary, as it marks 50 years of its proud establishment developing the agro industry.
 
www.agrobank.com.my

* VBI or value-based intermediation is an initiative by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) which aims to improve the products and services offered by Islamic financial institutions towards a better facilitation of entrepreneurship, community well-being, sustainable environment and economic growth, without compromising on shareholders’ returns

Issued by Strategic Communications Department, Agrobank


SOURCE : Agrobank

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Name : Ainul Rofidza Ibrahim
Head of Strategic Communications Department,
Agrobank
Tel : 03-2731 1600 (ext 2624) / +6019-2258210
Email : ainul.ibrahim@agrobank.com.my
 
Name : Shahreen Rahim
Section Head of Public Relations, Strategic Communications Department,
Agrobank
Tel : 03-2731 1600 (ext 1660) / +6012 943 6217 
Email : shahreen.rahim@agrobank.com.my

--BERNAMA