KUCHING: OCBC Bank (Malaysia) Bhd (OCBC Bank) expects double-digit growth in loan approvals for the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) segment this year.Its director and chief executive officer Jeffrey Chew disclosed after a signing ceremony between the bank and the SME Credit Bureau (M) Sdn Bhd, held in Menara OCBC in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
He added that the bank had approved RM4 billion worth of loans for SMEs last year.
“We expect to do better and this year it will be in double digits. I think for 2009, a lot of investment have kicked in, especially for larger corporations through the government projects started,” the press statement added.
“I believe this will filter down quickly over a six-month or one-year period to the SMEs. So, they (SMEs) will need more financing for this year. In that sense, there should be more demand for SME loans,” he said.
He said OCBC Bank was the first bank to purchase the reports, which would allow it to use the entire range of reports generated by the bureau on credit ratings and business information on Malaysian SMEs for assessing prospective customers.
SME Credit Bureau chief executive officer Alex Lim said the bureau expected loan approvals to be speeded up from five days now.
“From the standpoint of the bureau, we hope to have an accurate rating on SMEs. So that can give quicker access,” he said.
Lim said the OCBC business development team could expect much faster turnaround when requesting credit rating and business information reports, because they
would no longer need to go through the processes involved in obtaining individual reports from various sources.
He said SME Credit Bureau also hoped to tie up with other financial institutions for such arrangement soon. “In fact, all other financial institutions have been offered. We have 38 banks as members,” he said.
Singaporean-based OCBC Bank is currently one of the top five foreign banks in the country, with a network of 29 branches nationwide. It serves a diverse range of individuals and corporate, as well as SME clients, including sole proprietorships and partnerships. Its range of specialist financial services include consumer, corporate and business, investment, premier, transaction and Islamic banking, as well as global treasury services.