fbpx
Skip to main content
New Financial Assistance Hub

SME Loan Guarantee expanded: a welcome extension

20 July 2020

The ABA welcomes today’s announcement by the Morrison Government to extend the Coronavirus SME Guarantee Scheme.


“This will be welcome news for SMEs and opens up the scheme to those business who are looking to invest or need some extra support to get back on their feet”, said ABA CEO Anna Bligh.

“The banking industry will continue to work with the government ensuring the flow of credit into the economy and supporting those businesses who are still feeling the effects of the pandemic.”

ABA CEO Anna Bligh

“The banking industry will continue to work with the government ensuring the flow of credit into the economy and supporting those businesses who are still feeling the effects of the pandemic.”

SME Guarantee loans can now be larger, longer term and for a wider range of purposes. The initial phase of the Scheme remains available for new loans issued by eligible lenders until 30 September 2020. The second phase of the Scheme will start on 1 October 2020 and will be available until 30 June 2021.

Key October 1 changes to the SME Loan Guarantee include:
• Loans can be for a wider range of investment, beyond working capital
• Secured lending now permitted (excludes commercial or residential property)
• Maximum loan size increased to $1 million (from $250,000 per borrower)
• Maximum loan term now five years (from three years)
• Lenders can now offer a repayment deferral period.


How banks are extending their support.

Latest news

1 / 3
Transcript
Anna Bligh interview on The Project about scams
26 July 2024

Georgie Tunny: Anna Bligh is CEO of the Australian Banking Association. And we’ve heard so many examples of scammers infiltrating customers existing phone message threads from banks. If people can’t trust the bank’s own correspondence, what hope do they have?   Anna Bligh: The stories that you’ve run this week have been absolutely heartbreaking. And I hear… Read more »

Read more
Media Releases
ABA backs national awareness campaign on elder abuse
22 July 2024

The Australian Banking Association (ABA) welcomes the Federal Government’s upcoming campaign to further educate the community about elder abuse.   ABA CEO Anna Bligh said this was a timely opportunity to further raise awareness and shine the spotlight on financial elder abuse.   “Australian banks are deeply conscious of financial elder abuse. They see it playing out every day and have… Read more »

Read more
Current Technical Outage
19 July 2024

Major disruptions to payments systems as a result of the CrowdStrike outage have not occurred and are not anticipated. Impacts on banks and payments systems have been relatively minor, with any disruptions having already been remedied or in the process of being gradually restored. Banks will continue to monitor for any further impacts to services…. Read more »

Read more