Business

Friday October 23, 2009

StanChart aims further increase SME loans

By DALJIT DHESI


KUALA LUMPUR: Standard Chartered Bank Malaysia Bhd (StanChart) aims to grow its small and medium enterprise (SME) loans segment to account for about 30% of its total consumer banking loans next year from 25% currently.

Country head for consumer banking Tiew Siew Chuen said the bank would also maintain at least 20% compounded annual growth rate for SME loans over the next few years.

“One of the ways for us to increase our SME loans contribution and growth will be to increase the number of sales staff and relationship managers currently numbering 250.

“Three months ago, it was 150. We hope to have a total of 300 by the end of next year,’’ she said during an interview.

Left to right- Standard Chartered Malaysia country head for consumer banking Tiew Siew Chuen and SME banking head, medium enterprises Eddie Hu Meng Kui.

Location-wise, Tiew said StanChart would increase the number of relationship managers in key areas like the Klang Valley, Penang, Johor Baru and east Malaysia.

The bank maintains three SME teams in the Klang Valley, and a team each in Penang, Batu Pahat, Johor Baru, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu.

Supply chain financing was another area which StanChart was strongly focusing on, Tiew noted. This involves providing financing for SMEs tendering for Government or multinational mega projects.

The key SME sectors to which the bank provide financing are retail, wholesale, services and manufacturing.

In terms of SME business’ revenue contribution to consumer banking, Tiew said StanChart was projecting an increase of 25% for next year from 20% this year.

She attributed this to Government and Credit Guarantee Corp Malaysia Bhd (CGC) guaranteed schemes for the SMEs. In the last six months, the bank had disbursed about RM600mil to SMEs via these schemes.

StanChart, in collaboration with CGC, yesterday launched the Portfolio Guarantee Scheme for SME women entrepreneurs, the first of its kind in Malaysia.

In a statement, it said the institutions aimed to disburse RM100mil in the next 18 months through the scheme that offered women entrepreneurs a term-financing facility of up to RM500,000 for working capital and financing of SME asset acquisitions.

CGC would act as guarantor, offering partial guarantee cover for the loan. The scheme is available for women whose businesses have been operating for a minimum of five years and are seeking to expand.

CGC managing director Datuk Wan Azhar Wan Ahmad said CGC had always supported women-owned enterprises which make up 16% of the SMEs in the country.

To date, he said CGC had guaranteed close to RM3.7bil to about 9,500 women in SMEs.

The scheme also comes additional benefits such as one-year free insurance coverage of up to RM100,000 against female-related illnesses for the first 100 successful customers and corporate current accounts which yield high interest rates.

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