Ravi Chandran
OCBC Bank places all individual secured and unsecured loans under its Singapore Covid-19 relief programme with S$4 billion approved to date
- Deferment of principal or principal-plus-interest repayments by OCBC Bank now officially extended to car, renovation, education and industrial and commercial property loans, as well as the unsecured Debt Consolidation Plan
OCBC Bank has officially placed all personal financing facilities, secured and unsecured, under its Singapore Covid-19 Relief Programme. With this, car loans, renovation loans, education loans, industrial and commercial property loans and Debt Consolidation Plans all come under that Relief Programme. To date, OCBC Bank has approved moratorium for S$4 billion in loans to individuals, mostly for home loans in Singapore.
OCBC Bank started to receive moratorium requests for car loans, renovation loans, education loans and industrial and commercial property loans in March. At that time, there were no standardised relief measures for these loan types and each request was handled on a case-by-case basis. Since then, there has been an increase in the number of customers seeking moratorium for their monthly repayments. The number of moratorium applications has jumped by between 20 and 70 times within the past one month for each of the four loan types. All the eligible requests have been approved. So far, there have been no moratorium requests for the Debt Consolidation Plan.
Mr Sunny Quek, Head of Consumer Financial Services Singapore, OCBC Bank, said, “The economic impact of the Covid-19 outbreak spares no one and so our measures should also not leave any stone unturned. We hope that the latest tranche of support for our customers will go some way towards easing the financial strain. While the largest number of individuals asking for help are our home loans borrowers, we expect the number of moratorium requests for other loan types to continue to increase over the next few weeks, as the tightened circuit breaker measures continue to financially impact more people.
OCBC, together with all other consumer banks in Singapore, has been working closely with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to ensure that the relevant support is given to all affected individuals. We hope that this fourth round of support from OCBC will be able to help tide even more customers over this difficult period. We have been streamlining our processes so that we can get the relief support to our customers as quickly as we can.”
- Renovation loan deferment
Individuals who require help with their renovation loans can apply to defer their payments to January 2021.
To qualify, they must not have missed more than three months of instalment payments prior to applying for the deferment.
- Education loan deferment
Families and students who have taken up OCBC Bank’s FRANK Education Loan can apply to have their loan repayment schedule deferred to 31 May 2021.
This loan is intended to fund the part-time or full-time course fees charged by tertiary institutions – both in Singapore and overseas. To qualify, individuals must not have missed more than three months of instalment payments prior to applying for the deferment.
For families and students who have taken up the Tuition Fee Loan, the Ministry of Education has automatically deferred all loan repayment and interest to 31 May 2021.
- Industrial and Commercial property loans deferment
For these loans, the borrowers are SME owners who have purchased properties for the operation of their businesses. These individuals can request to defer principal payment to 31 December 2020.
To qualify, they must not have missed more than three months of instalment payments. They can also ask to extend their loan tenure by the number of months that the principal payment has been deferred.
- Car loan deferment
Individuals who require assistance to defer their payments will be granted a 3-month payment deferment.
The 3-month deferment period ensures that the revised instalment amount, after the payment deferment period, does not increase too significantly and so will not cause more stress for customers when it comes to future monthly instalments.
To qualify, they must not have missed more than one instalment payment.
- Borrowers on unsecured debt consolidation plan
Individuals on the Debt Consolidation Plan (DCP) who require assistance with managing their debts can apply to enjoy an enhanced repayment scheme.
Normally, all DCP customers can opt for a 36- to 96-month repayment scheme. Now, to ease any cashflow issues, self-employed customers can have a further 60 months added to the repayment period.
Other customers can be granted the same terms if they have missed between one to three months of monthly payments and produce proof that their income has been impacted during this period.
Three earlier tranches of support given
OCBC Bank introduced its first tranche of measures in February to help affected retail and corporate customers restructure or provide a moratorium on principal repayment for home mortgages and business loans. OCBC Bank also offered bridging loans in the form of additional working capital financing to affected businesses.
In March, following the announcement by ABS and MAS of the Special Financial Relief Programme to further help ease the financial strain on individuals and SMEs, OCBC Bank’s second tranche of support allowed individuals to defer the repayment of residential property loans and to convert outstanding credit card and personal loan balances to term loans.
In the third tranche of relief in early April, both credit card and personal loan customers had the minimum repayments on their outstanding balances reduced from 3% to 1% or S$50 (whichever is higher) for six months.
For the Bank’s full suite of Covid-19 relief measures and how to apply for them, please visit: www.ocbc.com/group/covid19-support
