MALACCA: National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) borrowers who have been listed in the Central Credit Reference Information System (CCRIS) may get a bank loan to buy their first home, says Bank Negara Malaysia.
BNM assistant governor Adnan Zaylani Mohamad Zahid said CCRIS contains information on loan repayments and is not a system aimed at blacklisting loan applicants.
He said the system will be referred to by banks or financial institutions to evaluate loan applications by PTPTN borrowers who are listed in the CCRIS.
“We at Bank Negara Malaysia will discuss with PTPTN and the relevant quarters on this matter, and I need to stress that CCRIS is a system to enable banks to report borrowers’ outstanding loans and not a system to blacklist them.
“For any new loan, the decision will be at the discretion of the bank, whether to approve the loan or not,” he told reporters after a press conference in conjunction with a seminar on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) here today.
He was asked to comment on Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin’s statement that PTPTN borrowers who are listed in the CCRIS will be able to buy their first home.
Zuraida was reported as saying yesterday that the matter had been discussed by telephone with PTPTN chairman Wan Saiful Wan Jan last month and an official announcement will be made after the launch of the Youth Housing Scheme in mid-October.
In another development, Adnan Zaylani said that the accounts of SMEs that are undergoing restructuring and rescheduling of their loan repayments will not be listed as affected accounts to ensure their line of credit is unaffected.
“BNM is concerned about the difficulty faced by SMEs especially in the current challenging situation, and we have discussed with the Association of Banks in Malaysia over the last few months in order to give flexibility to SMEs facing cash flow problems,” he said.
He said SMEs are one of the nation’s main engines of growth, with about one million business establishments contributing 37% to gross domestic product and accounting for 66% of the workforce.
SMEs are also important customers of financial institutions, accounting for 87% of total business financing accounts, he noted.
“Last year, over 123,000 financing applications from SMEs were approved, with, on average, three out of four applications approved, while the total amount approved was RM307 billion,“ he said.
He said various financing initiatives have been provided by BNM and financial institutions under a BNM fund to benefit SMEs including for all economic sectors, primary agriculture and micro enterprises.
As of June this year, loan applications by 80,000 SMEs have been approved under the fund set up in the 1980s, he said, adding that another RM3.3 billion is still available under the BNM fund, including for collateral-free loans for micro enterprises. — Bernama
