KUALA LUMPUR (May 23): CIMB Group Holdings Bhd expects its loan growth for the small and medium enterprise (SME) this year to maintain the same growth momentum as last year.

“We expect about the same as last year. It will continue to grow," Renzo Viegas, chief executive officer of group consumer banking, CIMB group, told reporters after the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signing ceremony between CIMB Bank Bhd and Credit Guarantee Corporation Malaysia Bhd (CGC).

Last year, the loan growth for the SME segment of the bank stood at 46%. The SME loan growth for the whole banking industry was at 18%.

CIMB Bank and CGC has today inked an MOU to offer up to a total RM1 billion of Enterprise Clean Loan (ECL) as part of their joint initiative to nurture and develop Malaysian SMEs.

The ECL is based on a customised portfolio guarantee product offered by CGC to CIMB Bank, to enable the latter to offer unsecured business loans to SMEs.

The MOU marks the enhancement of an already successful strategic collaboration between CIMB Bank and CGC since 2005, by making available a further RM750 million for the ECL.

CIMB Bank and CGC had successfully launched earlier, three tranches of the ECL, amounting to RM250 million.

At 12.30 p.m., shares of CIMB were traded 1 sen or 0.23% higher at RM4.38, for a market capitalisation of RM38.23 billion.