As the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to impact the Singapore economy, HSBC Singapore  announced a range of customer support measures to help Singapore’s flow of commercial trade including maturity extensions to SGD$600 million of current trade loans.

For customers with a sound trade finance record, the Bank has pre-approved 30-day extension of import trade loans maturing between 14 February and 30 April 2020 without any additional fee or penalty interest.

Other trade support measures

In addition to the trade finance loan extension, the Bank is announcing the following trade relief measures:

1. 1-hour turnaround on issuance of Shipping Guarantees

To help customers experiencing delays in receiving shipping documents from counterparties, the Bank will issue shipping guarantees within 1 hour, as opposed to the standard ‘same-day’ issuance. This means a customer can take transfer or receive goods from their counterparty faster.

2. Waiver of amendment fees on Letters of Credit impacted by delays

During this period, customers may experience delivery disruptions resulting in the late shipment and late presentation of documents. The waiver of amendment fees on the Letter of Credit (LC) will enable customers to change the terms of the LC to avoid penalty costs when their supplier presents documents under the LC.

3. Enhanced support to enable customers to shift towards digital processing

HSBC recognises that many of its customer will be in a virtual or business continuity work environment where conventional paper flow is not possible. HSBC will provide additional resources to assist customers shift on to its digital platforms to enable the flow of trade to continue uninterrupted. Additionally, urgent trade finance applications from Customers to the platform will be expedited.

Tony Cripps, Chief Executive Officer, HSBC Singapore, said: “Our community – both individuals and businesses – need every bit of help at this unprecedented time. Trade underpins Singapore’s economy and society. The measures that we have introduced today aim to facilitate the continued flow of trade by easing the cashflow and operational pressures faced by businesses tackling supply chain disruptions. We are committed to supporting our customers and will introduce more initiatives that will provide near-term relief.”

Wider bank measures

Today’s announcement forms part of a wider response HSBC has taken to support businesses, individuals and communities in Singapore, China and Hong Kong that have been impacted by COVID-19 including:

• On 10 February, HSBC Life Singapore, launched a COVID-19 Complimentary Special Benefits to our life insurance customers and their immediate family in Singapore.  These customers and their family members will receive additional benefits on diagnosis, hospitalisation and death-related to the COVID-19 at no additional cost.
• HSBC Singapore are expediting internal approval processes to better enable the flow of transactions
• More broadly, HSBC is working with individuals or businesses facing financial distress as a result of Coronavirus outbreak to review their current situation and identify appropriate arrangements.
• On 5 February, HSBC donated RMB5 million (just over USD 700,000) to hospitals across Hubei, which are working at maximum capacity to treat the sick. They committed a further RMB2 million to China’s National Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, which is racing to contain the virus and develop the control mechanism to prevent other outbreaks

In addition to today’s announcement, the Bank is actively evaluating further and specific initiatives to support commercial and personal customers. Further announcements will be made shortly.