Financial institutions have deferred and restructured loans worth Rs 883 billion under the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Loan Extension and Restructuring Scheme to facilitate the borrowers in Covid-19 pandemic.

Out of 1.696 million applications received, banks, DFIs and MFBs have approved 1.635 million applications (96.41 percent) up to January 22, 2020.

Since the launch of the scheme, the individual borrowers, especially the customers of microfinance banks, have been the major beneficiaries of the scheme. The restructured and deferred loans include 1.549 million approved applications of customers of microfinance banks involving an amount of Rs 105 billion, which approximately constitutes 48 percent of total net-loan portfolio of MFBs.

Whereas, Rs 707 billion (80.01 percent) out of total restructured and deferred amount of Rs 883 billion relates to corporate and commercial borrowers; as corporate loan portfolio of the banking industry constitutes 69.9 percent of total loan portfolio of banks, DFIs and MFBs.

It is pertinent to mention that on March 26, 2020, SBP announced the loan extension and restructuring scheme with an aim to preserve the solvency of the borrowers during temporary economic challenges. Under the scheme, two options were made available to the borrowers i.e. (1) to get the loans deferred for up to twelve months or (2) to get their loans restructured.