ANZ today announced it would establish a dedicated hotline to help small and medium business customers who are eligible for the Federal Government's Job Keeper payments.
ANZ will implement a process to identify which customers need this assistance and prioritise their funding requests until their payments arrive. The Australian Taxation Office is scheduled to make the first payments under the Federal Government's Job Keeper program in early May.
ANZ Chief Executive Officer Shayne Elliott said: "This is a challenging time for some of our business customers as they try to make ends meet while supporting their staff members and their businesses.
"ANZ is committed to helping those customers who need to fill an urgent short term funding gap while they wait for extraordinary financial support from the Government's Job Keeper program.
"Our dedicated hotline and financial support for these customers is in addition to the range of measures we already have in place to support them, such as loan repayment deferrals and a 10% increase in overdraft accounts," Mr Elliott said.
ANZ has already provided more than 6300 small and medium enterprise (SME) customers with a 10% increase on their overdraft accounts, which has helped alleviate some of the financial pressure and provided support until Job Keeper payments arrive.
ANZ has also provided loan repayment deferrals to about 15% of its SME customers.
ANZ is also offering loans for business customers that are 50% guaranteed by Federal Government for up to $250,000 as another way to help them through this challenging time.
Once the dedicated hotline has been established and other measures put in place to prioritise eligible customers, ANZ will provide updated information on anz.com/covid-19 where there will also be a call-back form.
