CBA’s Comyn tips bigger role for loan scheme – Sydney Morning Herald

Mr Comyn said he thought the scheme could be used more “in more targeted ways,” noting that the federal government had designed packages specifically for hard-hit sectors such as the arts.
“I could imagine more tailored support, because clearly there will be sectors, education, tourism, travel, which are going to be significantly impacted for some time,” Mr Comyn said.
Mr Comyn said CBA had approved about $700 million in loans under the guarantee scheme, and initially the program had been used by businesses that needed to cover their wages bill as they awaited JobKeeper payments.
“It was more, I describe it as working capital, so relatively small loan sizes, less than $100,000.00. And that makes sense in the context of that period, particularly in April and May,” Mr Comyn said.
The JobKeeper wage subsidy scheme is due to expire in September, raising fears of a financial “cliff” for affected firms and workers. The government is reviewing the program and has signalled it will provide some form of support at an economic update on July 23.
Senior bankers have been working closely with government in a bid to avoid the “cliff” and the serious consequences it would have for the banking system, including by giving borrowers more time to repay loans that have been paused.
Mr Comyn said JobKeeper was costing the federal government about $10 billion a month, and he said about a third of those payments went to CBA customers. He suggested there would be further support from the government but it would be more targeted.
“You would expect them to continue some form of support, it is obviously very expensive, but so perhaps they are going to look very closely at the qualification criteria and the targeting,” Mr Comyn said.
Another part of the financial “bridge” that involved the banking system is the Reserve Bank’s term funding facility, which gives banks up to $150 billion in funding at interest rates of just 0.25 per cent.
Figures on Friday showed $15.9 billion had been drawn down so far. Mr Comyn said CBA had experienced a surge in deposits, which meant it had not needed to draw the facility much yet, bu it would be used in the future.

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