Commercial banks granted over $22B in COVID-19 relief for 2021 - Report

Commercial banks granted over $22B in COVID-19 relief for 2021 – Report

Oct 19, 2021 News

Kaieteur News – In light of the economic pains unleashed by the COVID-19 pandemic, commercial banks on the advice of the country’s regulator, the Bank of Guyana, have provided more than $22B in COVID-19 relief to cushion the blow to the economy.

Bank of Guyana

According to the Bank of Guyana’s 2021 Half Year Report, Citizens Bank Guyana Inc. granted $12 billion in relief to sections of the economy while Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (GBTI) granted $6 billion and Bank of Nova Scotia granted $4.2 billion. Collectively, they account for $22.2 billion of total relief measures granted at the end of June 2021 by the banking sector.
Expounding further, Central Bank said the services sub-sector continues to receive the largest portion of relief, with 60.2 percent (G$16.5 billion) of total relief granted at the end of June 2021. The report by Central Bank also notes that the real estate mortgages sector received 19.9 percent (G$5.5 billion) of total relief followed by the manufacturing subsector with 11.6 percent (G$3.2 billion).
As for relief granted to the households sector, this represented 3.1 percent (G$846 million) of total relief granted and 2.5 percent of total loans to the households sector.
As at the end of June 2021, relief granted by Citizens Bank was concentrated in the services sub-sector (74.5 percent or G$9.0 billion). GBTI also granted a significant portion of its relief to the services sub-sector (41 percent or G$2.5 billion) while Scotia Bank granted 51.3 percent (G$2.2 billion) of its relief to the Real Estate Mortgages sector.
The Bank of Guyana was keen to note that it will continue to monitor the developments in light of COVID-19 relief and take all necessary steps to protect the safety, soundness and stability of the banking system.
Towards this end, the Bank reminded that it has committed to and implemented a series of measures designed to minimise the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the entire financial system. The measures implemented were agreed to by the Guyana Association of Bankers (GAB) and include: an initial three-month moratorium granted to classify affected accounts as non-performing, which was followed by an additional three-month period, bringing the total moratorium time to six-months; continuing with an accommodative monetary stance to promote growth; deferment of loan payments to assist customers in good standing; deferment of loan payments by companies to assist with their liquidity requirements; waiver or reduced fees/penalties for transactions with ATMs, debit cards, loan processing, late payments on loans, etc. and; encouraging customers to reduce in-person transactions by using e-banking, ATMs, telephone, etc.

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