12 June 2020 - 3 min Reading time
The banks continue to fully support consumers, companies and self-employed people who are under financial pressure due to the corona crisis.
Since March 31, 2020, they have granted 121,651 payment deferrals to private individuals for their mortgage loans. The total underlying credit volume amounts to 12.8 billion euros or an average of 105,175 euros per loan.
As far as companies are concerned, banks have granted 131,705 deferments of payments for business loans since March 31. This concerns a total underlying credit volume of 21.9 billion euros or an average of 166,021 euros per loan. More than 80% of the number of payment deferrals are granted to SMEs and the self-employed.
In addition, almost 17,000 new loans were granted in May for an amount of almost 4.2 billion euros.
Anyone experiencing financial problems due to the corona crisis and who wants to request payment deferment is asked to contact his or her bank as soon as possible.
Since the outbreak of the corona crisis, merchants and banks have become aware of the need to pay digitally as much as possible. Paying by card and smartphone is therefore an extremely safe and hygienic way to pay for purchases, especially if it is done contactless. The Belgian adjusted his payment behavior accordingly and seems to continue this new digital habit. It seems to indicate that Belgians still use their cards more often than pay in cash.
Contactless payment also seems to be becoming a permanent fixture in the payment landscape. While 16% of all card payments were made contactless in February this year, that percentage rose to 29% in April. This trend continued in May: last month, 32% of all card payments were made contactless.
Febelfin is calling on people to continue paying digitally (via card and smartphone) as much as possible, even now that most traders and points of sale have reopened their doors.