KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 22): RHB Bank Bhd is continuing payment assistance for customers facing difficulties making their monthly payments on loan or financing facilities until June next year.

In a statement, RHB group managing director Datuk Khairussaleh Ramli said the bank has extended payment assistance to some 59,000 of its individual and small and medium enterprise (SME) clients, with total loan and financing facilities amounting to more than RM10 billion.

He noted that the bank has made available varying payment assistance options to cater for different customer needs.

"In order to ensure fast turnaround time in approving repayment assistance requests, we have also put in place an auto-approval mechanism to cater to eligible customers who have submitted applications.

"We will continue to assist our customers who are facing difficulty in paying their monthly instalments and this repayment assistance will be made available all the way until June 2021. As such, we urge all our customers who require payment assistance to contact us immediately," said Khairussaleh.

The bank's loan and financing payment assistance programme is for both individual and SME customers.

It said customers who have lost their jobs or sources of income may opt for a three-month payment deferment, while those whose salaries or incomes have been cut may seek to reduce their payment instalments for at least six months.

Other forms of assistance include the payment of interest or profit only and lengthening the tenure of the loan or financing in question.

"Approval rate for repayment assistance applications is almost at 100%. Those that have not been approved are largely due to documents that are still pending, but we are simplifying this as much as possible," added Khairussaleh.

Individual customers can contact 03 2610 6000 regarding mortgage (residential and commercial property) and ASB financing, 03 2776 3111 for personal financing and hire purchase, while SME customers can call 039280 6270 / 6416 / 6391.

Shares in RHB were down by 1.84% or eight sen at RM4.27, valuing it at some RM17.12 billion. It saw 4.67 million shares traded.