Source: MIL-OSI Submissions
ASB has today committed to holding its base business interest rate through to the end of 2021.
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has today announced a decision to increase the Official Cash Rate (OCR) by 0.25% but ASB has stepped in to help the New Zealand small business community get through this challenging time.
ASB’s Executive General Manager Business Banking, Tim Deane, says, “we are acutely aware small business owners throughout the country are doing it tough right now and every little bit of financial relief helps them get through.”
“While the OCR increase puts pressure on our funding costs, we won’t be passing this cost through on our business base rate which is used to price loans most commonly used by our small business customers. We hope this commitment brings some small peace of mind to small businesses at this highly uncertain time.”
Mr Deane says for our small business customers who use a variable home loan to support their business activities there’s good news on that front today too, with ASB’s variable home lending rate remaining unchanged at 4.45 per cent.
“These are extremely challenging times for small businesses but ASB has a track record of providing financial and non-financial support.
“Last year we led the market by reducing merchant fees and in September we waived merchant fees altogether for contactless debit card transactions for eligible small business customers to support them as they trade through COVID-19 Alert Levels 3 and 4.
“Last year we also helped boost 100 small businesses with our Borrow the All Blacks campaign and provided grants through our Backing Business partnership with TVNZ.”
Over the past month we hosted a series of Backing Business: Mental health and wellbeing sessions to give all Kiwi business owners the opportunity to learn practical tips and tools to help them, their employees and their families navigate through this time.
Mr Deane says New Zealand businesses need certainty right now above anything else. “We’re pleased to be able to offer some peace of mind through the end of the year to help business owners take one of the variables out of their near-term planning.
“The bottom line is we are here to help. We continue to encourage any business – or personal customers – who areconcerned about their situation to contact us to discuss the many ways we can support them.”
