111,000 businesses and 24,000 people helped by coronavirus financial programs

Over 111 thousand businesses and 24 thousand individuals have made use of their banks' offers to pause repayments, borrow more money, or get extra credit due to the coronavirus. Banks' measures to aid their clients now involve an amount of 7 billion euros, the Dutch banking association NVB said on Friday, NU.nl reports.

Banks' financial aid programs come on top of the government's support package.

Over 16 thousand individuals have requested and received a "payment break" for their mortgages. And another 7 thousand consumers paused repayments of their consumer loans.

Over 103 thousand companies have asked for their payments to be deferred, involving an amount of 2.7 billion euros. Banks also gave some 8 thousand businesses new loans worth a total of 4.3 billion euros. "Nearly two thousand of these loans have been provided with a government guarantee, in particular through the Corona Small and Medium-sized Businesses Guarantee Scheme," NVB said.

For businesses with loans up to 50 million euros, ABN Amro, ING, Rabobank and Triodos have decided to extend the deferment of payments, NVB announced on Friday. "The deferral of repayments applies for a maximum of six month and banks can make offers under this scheme until June 30," NVB said.