KUALA LUMPUR (March 17): Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) is offering financial relief that includes restructuring and rescheduling of financing to its customers who are impacted by the ongoing Covid-19 outbreak. 

In a recent statement, Maybank said the relief also includes moratorium on loan repayments for up to six months.

"The financial relief will be open to both its business and SME customers as well as individuals affected by the current situation, and will be assessed on a case-to-case basis,” Maybank said.

Maybank group president and CEO Datuk Abdul Farid Alias said in the statement the financial services provider understands that this sudden turn of events arising from the virus outbreak has impacted some of its customers across various industries, and also individually.

“As their financial partner, we would like to do our part and help relieve them from added distress during this difficult period, in line with our mission of humanising financial services,” Abdul Farid said.

Abdul Farid said affected customers were welcome to contact their branch officers or relationship managers to discuss possible solutions to overcome any financial challenges they may be facing. “Should the situation persist, the bank will consider the possibility of extending the moratorium and financial relief for a longer period,” he said.

In the statement, Maybank said that in addition to the financial relief by the group, its insurance arm Etiqa will provide hospitalisation coverage to its life insurance and family takaful policyholders that fall ill from the coronavirus.

At Bursa's 12:30pm break today, Maybank’s share price rose 13 sen sen or 1.78% to RM7.42 for a market capitalisation of RM81.5 billion. The stock saw some 16 million shares traded.