Lahore: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has recorded over 85,000 applications from borrowers looking to ease their loan repayments in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, a news source reported. As per the publication, the SBP, in recent weeks, had introduced several loan relief schemes to facilitate borrowers during this tough period – leading to this development.
The central bank reported that the commercial banks have
received 85,494 applications from borrowers trying to avail the loan relief schemes. Of
this total number, sources added that 80,368 borrowers had already benefited
from the program, while the remaining 5,126 cases were currently being processed.
According to the details available, the borrowers have availed the deferred payment facility of PKR 20 billion. They added that a small section of borrowers has also availed the restructuring of their loans amounting to PKR 1.4 billion.
Previously, the SBP had announced its loan relief schemes for
borrowers within the consumer, corporate, SMEs, microfinance, and agriculture sectors.
According to these schemes, DFIs were to defer the payments of loan principles
and advances by one year, or restructure the loans if required. Meanwhile, the
borrowers will continue to service the markup amount.
