Corporate and retail customers across its core markets in the region will be offered tailored measures to tide over this difficult period.

OCBC Bank has offered targeted support measures to assist customers across its core markets that are affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. These include Singapore, Malaysia, China, Hong Kong and Macau. The tailored measures have been put in place to ensure that they are able to manage their cashflows to overcome the market challenges.

With the global economic prospects likely to be dimmer as a result of the outbreak, OCBC Bank is working closely with customers, whether individuals, small- or medium-sized enterprises or large corporates, to mitigate the fall-out from the outbreak and to help them tide over this difficult period. Flexibility is offered to accommodate each customer’s financial position.

These measures include:
• Allowing customers to restructure their loans, including home mortgages and business loans
• Providing a moratorium on principal repayment for loans, including home mortgages and business loans
• Extending bridging loans in the form of additional working capital financing to affected businesses

OCBC Bank’s Group Chief Executive Officer Samuel Tsien said: “We will not put a cap on the help that we will extend to our customers. This COVID-19 outbreak is unfortunate and unanticipated. It is our banking and social responsibility to support our customers to help them overcome this market challenge which is not of their own making. We will help each of our customers as the case may justify and not on a first-come, first-serve basis. As we at OCBC put it, we must be ‘simply spot on’ on the assistance that our customers need.

“Many of our customers have banked with us through the generations and some are third- and fourth-generation clients. We had celebrated the good times together and weathered the bad times together. While the scale of this situation is different from that of previous challenges because of the increased connectivity in the region, OCBC will remain steadfast in our support. I am confident that this event will come to an end in a few months, though the longer-term implications may need some time to fully recover. Still, it is just an event – event comes, and event goes. We will do all that is necessary to pull through together with and for our customers.”

Measures to ensure employees’ health and safety
The health and well-being of employees across the OCBC Group remains a top priority. Our business continuity plans had already commenced earlier in January, when the virus became more widespread and a series of precautionary measures have been implemented. They include:
1. Temperature screening have been implemented at all offices and branches.
2. Split operations have been implemented with teams working from different locations to ensure business continuity and to minimise interaction.
3. Staff are allowed to work from home when appropriate to minimise interaction even if they are not served the official Leave of Absence notice or Quarantine Orders
4. Pregnant staff and vulnerable staff who are not comfortable to work in the offices are allowed to work from home.
5. Hand sanitisers have been placed in all offices and branches. Cleaning frequency in common areas such as branch lobbies, lifts, corridors and toilets have also been increased.
6. Face masks have been distributed to all departments and teams. Frontline staff who have interactions with multiple external parties are encouraged to wear a mask.
7. Staff in Singapore have access to medical advice via tele-consultation sessions with qualified personnel.
8. Business travel restrictions have been put in place to minimise contact.