Standard Chartered Bank is allotting $50 million to aid different sectors severely affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.
In a statement on Wednesday, the British banking giant said that all the group’s board and management team members will make personal contributions to the Covid-19 assistance fund.
The first half of the aid is allocated for the emergency relief of the bank’s most affected markets.
The remaining $25 million “will help communities over the medium term to recover from the economic impact of the virus,” Standard Chartered added.
To date, the bank has donated a total of $1.85 million to Covid-19 relief programs.
Standard Chartered earlier committed $1-billion loan relief for companies that are manufacturing and distributing pharmaceutical and health-care products.
This also covers those producing ventilators, face masks, protective equipment, sanitizers and other consumables.
The $1-billion commitment is eyed to be given in form of loans, import/export finance or working capital to aid the daily business operations, the banking giant said.
“Our industry teams are looking across our client base and, given our understanding of clients’ current manufacturing processes, we’re assessing which companies might want to consider adding [anti-virus] items to their production line,” Simon Cooper, Standard Chartered CEO of Corporate, Commercial and Institutional Banking, said in an earlier statement.
The bank added that all financing will be given to companies that received regulatory approval to manufacture such goods.
The multinational banking institution has already activated its business continuity plan following the announcement of Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine few weeks ago.
Its offices in Makati and Quezon City are currently operating with skeletal work force and on flexible working arrangement beginning March 17.
This was in line with the call of Bankers Association of the Philippines to keep the banks’ physical branches operational amid the lockdown in Luzon for transactions that could not be accomplished online.
Standard Chartered reminded its customers that its digital channels are readily accessible for transactions, including cash management, trade, foreign exchange and securities services.