KUALA LUMPUR (July 5): Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) has entered into a strategic partnership with Credit Guarantee Corporation Malaysia Bhd (CGC) to provide up to RM2 billion of financing to small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) via the latter's portfolio guarantee (PG) scheme.

In a joint statement today, Maybank and CGC said this is the largest ever amount under the CGC PG scheme to support local SMEs in growing their businesses further.

Under the Maybank-CGC PG scheme, SMEs can apply for either Islamic or conventional financing facilities from Maybank, from a minimum of RM50,000 up to a maximum of RM1.5 million and for a fixed tenure of up to seven years.

Meanwhile, under this scheme, CGC will guarantee 70% of the principal financing amount.

The strategic partnership was signed by Maybank head of SME banking Adnan Sharif and CGC's chief business officer Leong Weng Choong, witnessed by Maybank head of community financial services Malaysia Datuk Hamirullah Boorhan, and CGC's president and chief executive officer Datuk Mohd Zamree Mohd Ishak.

Hamirullah said the RM2 billion PG allocation is in addition to the RM1.26 billion approved by Maybank in 2014, followed by RM1.1 billion in 2015 and RM1.5 billion in 2016, which was driven by the 'strong' demand from the SME industry.

"Our decision to extend Maybank's collaboration with CGC for up to RM2 billion is a reflection of our commitment to support the growth of the SME sector in Malaysia which is an integral contributor to the Malaysian economy," he said.

"As at end-2017, Maybank became the largest PG partner in the SME market with a total disbursement of close to RM3.78 billion and benefitting more than 8,000 customers nationwide. Currently, in the first quarter of 2018, I am happy to say that we have surpassed the RM4 billion PG disbursement mark and we are confident that the numbers will increase," he said.

Furthermore, Hamirullah said Maybank also offers other non-financing services to ensure SME players remain competitive and continuously appraised of growth opportunities.

"Among these non-financial services include advisory services, training roadshows and capacity building programmes such as the 'Building Capacity & Capability for SMEs' programme," he said.

"This programme is part of our efforts to ensure SMEs are able to leverage opportunities within the rapidly changing business environment. The Building Capacity & Capability for SMEs has reached out to more than 3,500 participants since it was launched in 2014. This year the programme is continuing at eight locations nationwide between April and November," he added.

Meanwhile, CGC's Zamree said the partnership strives to increase access to financing and provide more customised financing products and services that meet SMEs' needs.

"I would also like to thank Maybank for being one of our top supporters for the imSME initiative," he said.

imSME is Malaysia's first online SME Financing/Loan referral platform that is designed to simplify the process of searching for financing/loan for SMEs from 15 financial institutions (FIs) and development FIs and was launched in February this year.

Zamree said the response for imSME is very encouraging as over 40,000 visitors have visited imSME, to-date.