Riyadh – Mubasher: The Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority’s (SAMA) initiative to inject SAR 50 billion into the banking sector will directly support banks’ liquidity levels, said Talat Hafiz, secretary general of the Media and Banking Awareness Committee of Saudi banks.
Moreover, the move would help significantly bolster banks' associative role in maintaining an effective performance of the private sector, he added.
The initiative has dually contributed to the interest of the Saudi economy as well as bank retail and corporate clients, amid the current challenges, according to a statement on Wednesday.
SAMA’s support measure empowers banks to continue providing credit facilities to their private sector clients. In addition, it helps the banks revise or restructure the private sector's loans with no additional charges, support plans to maintain hiring levels while offering some e-banking services for free.
The Saudi banks have shown a positive interaction with SAMA’s support measure, in complete compliance with all supervising instructions and procedures, building on SAMA’s role in activating the monetary policy and enhancing financial stability.
Last March, SAMA introduced a SAR 50 billion Private Sector Financing Support Program to mitigate the impacts of the precautionary coronavirus (COVID-19) measures on the private sector, particularly on the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) sector.
The program consisted of various basic elements, including the Deferred Payments Program, Funding for Lending Program, and Loan Guarantee Program.
Moreover, a fourth programme was launched to support payment fees of all stores, points of sales (POS), and e-commerce platforms of all private sector entities for a period of three months at a total value surpassing SAR 800 million.
