At the Commonwealth Bank, we are doing everything we can to support our people, our customers, and the economy. We will continue to take decisive action to achieve this.
We have automatically deferred repayments for 76,000 small business customers for up to six months, helping improve their cash flows by $450 million each month. For customers with a variable rate home loan, we are also reducing repayments to the minimum, freeing up $300 million each month. This week we will process the first 30,000 applications from households to defer repayments on their home loans, improving cash flows for these households by a further $40 million each month.
We have increased our 12 month term deposit rates by 60 basis points (bps), helping all savers, but especially older Australians who most rely on their savings for income. We also lowered one, two and three year fixed rate home loans by 70bps – helping both new and existing customers take advantage of historically low rates.
Digital technology has never been more important. Through the CommBank app we have been able to connect with over 7 million of our customers and have seen over 2 million unique views of our coronavirus support page on commbank.com.au. Next month (April), we will make 250,000 proactive calls to customers who are not frequent users of digital channels, including the elderly.
We remain focused on keeping people safe, and ensuring that our branches and contact centres remain open and ready to serve customers.
The swift and pragmatic actions taken by our regulators are also playing an important role. The Reserve Bank has created a term funding facility to ensure low cost funding for small businesses.
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has taken a number of steps to ensure the financial system remains strong while providing financial institutions with the flexibility to support customers through this period. The Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) has redirected resources to ensure coronavirus support is delivered well by the industry.
Despite these actions, we are facing a significant economic shock. Every business is affected, every individual is already or will be required to make sacrifices and many of our customers are already experiencing financial difficulty.
We are fortunate to have a very strong, stable and secure financial system. We have the most well capitalised banks in the world. They have substantial liquidity, which will be required to support the economy at this time. However, both the banks’ and the governments’ resources are finite and not every job or every business can be saved over the coming months.
The Commonwealth Bank will only be successful if Australia is successful, and that is why we will continue to take decisive action to support the country through this period. Individually and collectively, we all have a role to play in limiting transmission of the virus, keeping essential services operating and ensuring our economy and society remain intact so that we all rebound strongly.
Transcript
Matt Comyn spoke at The Australian Financial Review Banking and Wealth Summit on 30 March 2020.
This column was originally published in the Australian Financial Review on 30 March 2020.
