Moneytech joins SME recovery scheme panel

In March, the government announced the expansion and extension of its Coronavirus SME Loan Guarantee Scheme as part of its commitment to support up to $40 billion in lending to SMEs.

Under the SME Recovery Loan Scheme, small businesses that were receiving the JobKeeper payment between 4 January 2021 and 28 March 2021 will be eligible to apply for loans of up to $5 million on terms of up to 10 years.

Eligible businesses affected by the floods with a turnover of less than $250 million will also be able to access the loans regardless of whether they had been on JobKeeper during the quarter.

The government is guaranteeing 80 per cent of the loans and said that the maximum period that a borrower may take a repayment holiday is 24 months.

Commenting on the lender’s acceptance into the scheme, Moneytech CEO Nick McGrath provided suggestions for referral partners to be able to identify eligible borrowers for the scheme.

“One helpful tip for referral partners to identify if a borrower may be eligible for an SME recovery loan (SMEG3) is to have the client provide a ‘critical response account’ statement from their ATO portal, which will show if the business collected JobKeeper payments between January the 4th and March 28th, 2021,” he said.

Mr McGrath also said that the lender’s acceptance into the scheme would address SMEs’ priorities of ease and access to funding for their businesses.

He said: “Pleasingly, in addition to traditional lending products, we are also able to offer our line of credit, trade finance and debtor finance products under the scheme, which allows Moneytech to open up our products to industries which otherwise may be excluded by mainstream funders in the working capital non-bank space.

“Our BDM team is well equipped to work with referral partners or direct clients to establish an SME’s eligibility under the scheme.”

Mr McGrath said the fintech lender recently settled over 150 facilities that were guaranteed under phase two of the scheme.

[Related: Government extends loan scheme to flood-hit SMEs]