Government has announced a deferment of loan payments for Bank of Maldives BML customers with personal, housing and business loans as part of the Economic Recovery Plan minimize impact of the Covid-19 crisis on individuals and businesses alike.
While President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih confirmed the decision earlier today at a news briefing, in a statement BML said it had decided to defer monthly principle and interest repayments for 6 months. The bank said this is to help individuals and businesses to manage the challenging time.
It said at the same time the tenor of the loan will also be extended by 6 months allowing more time to repay the accrued interest and principle repayments. It added that after the 6 months, the repayment amount would be reduced by 20% for a further 6 months.
Bank of Maldives said BML customers with personal, housing or business loans are elidgible for the deferment from 1st March 2020 until end of September 2020. It said the only requirement is to have cleared all overdue loan payments.
BML added that credit cards and overdraft facilities for personal and business customers are not eligible for deferment.
The statement said once the customer requests; they will not be required to make any payments for 6 months. It also said the interest charged during these 6 months will be added to the outstanding loan amount and spread over the remaining period of the loan. However, BML said interest rate charge would not be changed. But said if the customers are able to continue to meet their loan repayments regularly as per the existing schedule, the customer won’t need to defer repayments.
Bank of Maldives said that it would share individual details with their customers and announce a simple online process for personal customers in particular to take advantage of the loan repayment deferment.
