{"id":415155,"date":"2020-07-10T12:45:38","date_gmt":"2020-07-10T10:45:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=415155"},"modified":"2020-07-10T12:45:38","modified_gmt":"2020-07-10T10:45:38","slug":"south-africas-big-banks-looking-at-additional-debt-relief-options-for-homeowners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/415155\/south-africas-big-banks-looking-at-additional-debt-relief-options-for-homeowners\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa&#8217;s big banks looking at additional debt relief options for homeowners"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>South African banks are looking at a range of options, including debt consolidation, to avoid defaults when coronavirus-related debt relief measures end.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-health-coronavirus-safrica-debt\/south-africas-banks-mull-how-to-avoid-loan-defaults-when-virus-relief-ends-idUSKBN24B183\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Reuters<\/a><\/strong>, FNB chief executive officer Jacques Celliers said that the lender was worried about the impact of job losses and wanted to avoid a wave of property evictions that would affect prices.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We\u2019ll have to be very clever between all of us as to how we navigate the property game,&#8221; Celliers said.<\/p>\n<p>Anton de Wet, chief client officer at Nedbank said debt consolidation on home loans was a possibility and that term extension, as well as other solutions, could be discussed with customers individually.<\/p>\n<p>Standard Bank and Absa also indicated that they were looking at debt-relief solutions.<\/p>\n<p>Mortgages make up 59% of R489 billion in loans considered at risk, according to the Banking Association of South Africa (Basa).<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, the association said South African banks have <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/banking\/414205\/how-much-money-south-african-banks-have-given-in-coronavirus-support-and-why-they-wont-offer-debt-write-offs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">approved<\/a> <\/strong>more than R30.6 billion in relief to individuals and businesses affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and national lockdown.<\/p>\n<p>Separately, over R10.6 billion has been extended to distressed businesses under the Covid-19 Loan Guarantee Scheme, it said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCash flow relief for eligible individuals and businesses is critical to the preservation of jobs and businesses and to maintaining a functioning economy,\u201d said Basa managing director Bongiwe Kunene.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBanks hold in trust the salaries and savings of South Africa\u2019s workers, professionals and businesses. It is therefore essential that we continue to extend credit responsibly and\u00a0avoid blanket debt write-offs or any other actions that might place depositors\u2019 funds at risk\u00a0or otherwise undermine the integrity of the financial sector.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Basa said that as of 27 June 2020, individual customers had received R18.26 billion in relief, with banks approving 2.4 million (82.7%) of 2.9 million applications for assistance.<\/p>\n<p>Relief granted to commercial, small and medium enterprises amounted to R12.39 billion, with banks approving 132,508 (95.5%) of 138,675 applications for assistance.<\/p>\n<p>To date, banks have also approved just over R10,6 billion in concessionary loans for 7,496 qualifying small businesses in terms of the Covid-19 Loan Guarantee Scheme, which was launched in mid-May.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/banking\/414113\/fnb-to-stop-issuing-cheques-from-next-year\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">FNB to stop issuing cheques from next year<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South African banks are looking at a range of options, including debt consolidation,\u00a0 to avoid defaults when coronavirus-related debt relief measures end.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":347372,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-415155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415155"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":415177,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415155\/revisions\/415177"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}