Absa Seychelles grants payment holidays to over 4,000 customers |13 May 2020
Absa Bank Seychelles has assisted a total of 4,680 individuals and businesses with a combined loan value of over R1 billion to date with the payment holidays of 3 to 6 months offered to its customers.
Following the announcement of the Absa Seychelles payment holiday initiative being offered to all its customers on April 10, 2020, a payment holiday of 3 months was offered to Personal and Prestige customers in need of financial relief during this period. Absa can confirm that it has assisted over 4,300 customers to date.
“We understand that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is a challenging time for everyone, where all our lives have been disrupted and some families have been harder hit than others. We have done our best to relieve their financial burdens for a short while, freeing up much needed cash flow in their homes. We have also increased our savings rate to 2.75% to encourage savings during this time of economic uncertainty,” said the managing director of Absa Bank Seychelles, Johan Van Schalkwyk.
Absa Seychelles can further confirm that to date, over 380 businesses have been assisted with the 6 month payment holiday offered to both the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector and larger corporate entities, bringing the total value of Absa loans now participating in the payment holiday offerings to over R1 billion.
“As a responsible corporate entity it is our duty to assist our community through this crisis. We, as part of a well-established and well financed international group, are fortunate enough to be able to hit the pause button on these loans and give our customers the opportunity to find their feet during this crisis.
“Absa Group as a whole has invested tremendous time and effort in offering relief in all 12 markets that we operate in. As a pan African organisation, our future is inextricably linked to the continued growth and success of our communities and while we have a hard road ahead, our customers are not alone. The extent with which we have offered these payment holidays is a testament to our commitment,” added the managing director.
Absa Seychelles has further assisted a number of businesses with working capital solutions to the value of over R80 million and is continuing to review new requests for assistance as businesses unpack the impact of COVID-19 on their operations.
Customers and business customers were invited to participate in the payment holiday through either an SMS opt in approach or through their Relationship managers. A few customers still had their loan payments deducted although they opted to participate due to the volume of requests for assistance received from Retail customers. However, the bank has committed to reversing and refunding those payments.
“It is clear by the number of customers needing this extra cash flow that we made the right call offering this temporary relief to their households but this came with certain challenges. Despite dedicating our colleagues to working on this list we have had more accounts to process than anticipated, however we sent out a second SMS to customers reassuring them that those payments would be reversed and we are pleased to say that this exercise is nearly complete and we thank them for their patience,” said the managing director.
Contributed by Absa Bank Seychelles