Amret, one of the leading financial institutions in the Kingdom, is offering a helping hand to its customers by offering a loan repayment grace period to 120,000 group loan clients whose livelihoods have been affected by the global Covid-19 pandemic.

The group loan customers are predominantly rural-based, smallholding farmers, who often depend for a part of their income on family members working in the nation’s garment factories which have seen widespread closures because of the pandemic.

Amret says that, as these group loan customers are among the most vulnerable to economic hardship in the current situation, if they ask for relief Amret will offer to automatically defer their repayments of both interest and principal for 3 months.

Group loans are a key component of microfinance lending and make finance available to remote rural communities across the nation.

‘’As a socially responsible institution, Amret sincerely hopes that the implementation of this grace period will support our clients and families through this difficult economic situation brought on by the COVID-19 global crisis”, said Amret CEO, Mr. Dos Dinn, adding that similar grace periods from 3 to 6 months would also be offered to individual loan clients on a case by case basis.

Mr. Dos Dinn said that as one of the leading financial institutions in Cambodia, with a history of supporting Cambodia’s financial needs for over 30 years, Amret’s sound financial standing allowed it to offer this support to its customers as an essential part of its business mission.

Mr. Dos Dinn said that Amret will offer individual clients with larger financial obligations repayment solutions based on a case by case assessment, including partial or full deferred payments from three to six months, to ease their financial burden.

He said Amret would pay particular attention to those individual borrowers in the business sectors identified by the National Bank of Cambodia as most vulnerable to the pandemic: tourism, garment manufacture, construction and transport, as well as agriculture.

គ្Despite the challenges posed by Covid-19 to many of Amret’s customers, the company says there are many other Amret’s customers who are still operating their businesses successfully despite the economic downturn.

“We value their support and we thank them for their continued commitment to fulfil their financial obligations, which in turn will help to support Amret’s effort to provide financial assistance to those most impacted during this pandemic” added Mr. Dos Dinn. Amret says that, now more than ever, it’s policy of developing and maintaining exceptional close personal relationships with its customers was key to minimising the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

With 2,000-field staff in regular contact with each of their clients, the company aims to be there for all its customers in their hour of need.

Amret serves more than 500,000 clients ranging from low- income farmers to SMEs for both lending and deposit products. Amret has 158 branches in 25 cities and provinces nationwide employing more than 4,500 personnel. Amret has assets over USD 1 billion and deposits exceeding USD 500 million. Amret is a subsidiary of the Advans Group, a leading international microfinance group providing financial services to low-income segments and SMEs that are underserved or unbanked. FMO and IFC are two other shareholders with over USD 1 billion in assets.