KUALA LUMPUR, 27 June – Credit Guarantee Corporation Malaysia Berhad (CGC) has recognised five (5) financial institutions (FIs) and 10 of its customers for their active participation in CGC schemes during the annual SME Awards held in Kuala Lumpur, Wednesday.
Ambank (M) Berhad (Ambank), CIMB Bhd, Malayan Banking Berhad (Maybank) and Standard Chartered Bank Berhad were honoured with Top FI Partner Award for commercial bank category, Maybank Islamic Berhad bagged two awards namely the Top FI Partner 2018 for Islamic bank category and Top Bumiputera FI Partner, while Maybank emerged as the Best Financial Partner of CGC for second consecutive year.
For Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), CGC awarded the Exemplary Customer Award to five (5) of its customers with good repayment track record on their financing facility and gave them rebates on guarantee fees paid. Five (5) SMEs received the Excellent Customer Award as they no longer require CGC’s guarantee due to their improved credit track record and success in business which enables them to have banking facilities direct from the banks.
The awards were presented by Assistant Governor of Bank Negara Malaysia Abu Hassan Alshari Yahaya. In his speech, he said: “I would like to commend CGC for the continuous effort in championing the SME cause, and in recognising the banking and financial industry players that have made meaningful contribution in supporting the SMEs.”
“CGC SME Awards is a recognition to the commitment and excellence demonstrated by Financial Institutions (FIs) and Development Financial Institutions (DFIs), who have stood by SMEs to make access to financing possible through diversified products and services. We also appreciate our SME customers who have demonstrated an exemplary record in meeting their loan and guarantee fee commitment,” said CGC’s Chairman Dato’ Agil Natt.
Meanwhile, CGC President/Chief Executive Officer Datuk Mohd Zamree Mohd Ishak said: “We will continue to explore new opportunities and new growth areas to develop innovative financing products in our bid to accelerate financial inclusion. As we aspire “To become the Household Name for the SMEs by 2020”, we gear up ourselves to create a more agile CGC to fulfil our mandate and deliver value to the SMEs in the country.”
Next year, CGC plans to give a new award to FIs and DFIs that actively avail financing via the imSME platform with the hope that this will further encourage FIs, DFIs and other participants to reach out to more SMEs and micro businesses via imSME. Launched in February 2018, imSME is Malaysia’s first online SME Financing/Loan referral platform that is designed to simplify the process of searching for financing/loan for SMEs from 15 FIs and DFIs.
imSME is user friendly and has four easy steps – log on and register, key in relevant information, select your preferred financing options and the banks will call in two (2) working days.
Zamree added that the response for imSME is very encouraging as over 40,000 visitors have visited imSME. For more information, visit www.imsme.com.my.