KUALA LUMPUR (Apr 24): AmBank (M) Bhd and Credit Guarantee Corp Malaysia Bhd (CGC) jointly announced that they have signed a portfolio guarantee (PG) agreement today to extend RM300 million of financing to small and medium enterprises (SME).

These SMEs will have to come from any of five main sectors: wholesale and retail trade, manufacturing, education, health care, and construction and resources, according to their joint press statement.

"These sectors have been identified under the SME Masterplan 2012–2020 with growth potential where Malaysia has both comparative and competitive advantages with high multiplier effect.

"The SMEs in these five sectors can look forward to securing higher financing amount, up to RM3,000,000, and with a loan tenure of up to five years," read the statement.

“We are pleased to partner CGC in this portfolio guarantee collaboration, [for] which AmBank will provide accessible working capital financing to qualified SMEs. We have allocated an initial sum of RM300 million to further support our existing customers in their expansion phase and reach out to new SME customers throughout the country," said AmBank managing director of wholesale banking Pushpa Rajadurai.

“The SME segment is one of our key growth areas for this year. Accordingly, this CGC tie up is timely for AmBank Group to increase our market share and contribute to economic growth in the country,” he added.

“Our collaboration with AmBank is primarily focused on ensuring that SMEs secure the amount of financing they require in the shortest time possible, which is proven to be possible through the PG,” said CGC president and chief executive officer Mohd Zamree Mohd Ishak.

Zamree also said CGC can provide approvals within three days upon receipt of the applications from AmBank as the pre-determined and simplified set of criteria for loan eligibility have been agreed on upfront.

Other distinct features of this PG are the certainty in approval — which is almost 100% due to the efficiency of the process flow and previous experience — no guarantee fees, and hassle-free applications.

Zamree also added that future collaborations with AmBank will include wholesale guarantee financing, which is aimed at providing unsecured business financing, a new frontier for the banking industry, by reducing risks on books of the financial institutions and freeing up capital for SME financing.

At the signing of the PG agreement, AmBank also launched AmBank BizSolutions, which offers different financing and non-financing products and solutions that are tailored for commercial and SME companies.
 
Among the range of products and solutions under AmBank BizSolutions are the BizSolutions Credit Guarantee Corporation Malaysia Berhad (CGC) Portfolio Guarantee (PG)–Term Loan (TL) or BizSolutions CGC PG-TL, and BizSolutions Fortune$.

“With SMEs being the driving force of the Malaysian economy, this financing solution can be tailored from the simplest asset financing to general working capital, to even financing specific projects. Not just for ordinary everyday transactions, the AmBank BizSolutions will provide solutions for your cash flow management and also for managing your payables and receivables,” said AmBank’s Pushpa.