All public banks enter SME Credit Guarantee Scheme

All banks in the Maldives sans one have participated in the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Credit Guarantee Scheme of the Maldives’ central bank.

Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) introduced the scheme last month which offers loans from MVR 100,000 up to MVR 1 million to banks. The SME Credit Guarantee is released under loans to small and medium enterprises that fulfill all the conditions of the scheme.

The MVR 50 million scheme kicked off with the participation of Bank of Maldives Ltd (BML) and Maldives Islamic Bank (MIB), later followed by State Bank of India (SBI), the first foreign bank operated in the Maldives to enter the scheme.

MMA had signed the agreement with Bank of Ceylon (BOC), Habib Bank Ltd (HBL) and Mauritius Commercial Bank (MCB) last Thursday. Consequently, all banks in operation in the Maldives have now entered this scheme with the exception of HSB, which caters to large businesses and enterprises over the public.

Companies can also apply to this loan scheme to expand their businesses, increase assets and funds to operate their trades. While some banks directly release money under the scheme, others acquire only the assets for the company.