NAB welcomes new Government support measures for SMEs
Below is a statement from NAB CEO Ross McEwan on the new Federal Government support measures announced today:
“This is a very welcome package of measures announced by the Government today. The Coronavirus SME Guarantee Scheme in particular will be critical in helping banks such as NAB support businesses who need a quick cash flow injection to stay open and keep people in jobs.
“NAB strongly supported and advocated for the establishment of this scheme. We will now work with the Government to implement these measures as quickly as possible and help ensure everything that can be done is being done to support Australians through this.
“These new measures complement a sweeping package of initiatives NAB announced on Friday to support our customers.
“This is an extremely difficult time but we will get through this together and NAB will support our customers in any way we can.
“NAB continued to lend through the GFC and we’ll continue to lend through this.”
Mr McEwan encouraged customers to call NAB to discuss they might be able to access the relief package.
“If any customer has questions or concerns please don’t wait – contact your banker now.”
For more information on how NAB is supporting customers through the challenges associated with the coronavirus pandemic please visit nab.com.au/coronavirus.
The support package for NAB customers includes the following measures for customers:
NAB business customers will be able to:
- Defer principal and interest for up to six months on a range of business loans, including floating and variable rates, and equipment finance loans;
- Receive a 200-basis point rate cut on new loans and all overdrafts on QuickBiz, effective March 30;
- Receive an additional 100-basis point reduction on variable rates for small business loans, effective March 30. This is on top of a 25-bps reduction earlier this month;
- Access up to $65 billion of additional secured limits to pre-assessed customers, with $7 billion currently available for fast assessment process;
- Access up to $9 billion in additional limits for unsecured lending for existing customers via QuickBiz; and
- Defer business credit card repayments.
NAB personal customers will be able to:
- Pause home loan repayments for up to six months, including a three-month checkpoint. For a customer with a typical home loan of $400,000, this will mean access to an additional $11,006 over six months, or $1,834 per month.
- Access a 10-month term deposit rate of 1.75% p.a. for 10 months, effective March 24. This is for personal customers only, with deposits of $5,000 to $2 million.
- Access fixed home loan rates of 2.39% p.a. for 1-year, 2.29% p.a. for 2- and 3-year, and 2.79% p.a. for 5-year (owner-occupier P&I), effective March 25. First home buyers will have access to a rate of 2.19% p.a., fixed for two years. This delivers reductions of between 10 and 60bps (table below).
- Access over $20bn in redraw and more than $30bn in offset. Note: Around 1 in 2 accounts are at least 6 months ahead based on redraw & offset balance; and 4 in 10 are 12 months ahead.
- Reduce repayments on variable rate loans. Over the past 12 months, reductions of 84bps to our owner-occupier variable rates have provide a potential benefit of $3,360 per year to customers with a $400,000 loan. Most customers have not yet taken the option to reduce their payments.
