Supporting Individuals and Businesses
MAS, together with various parties, introduced measures to enable listed issuers to conduct their general meetings in accordance with safe distancing measures
April to October 2020
The measures were jointly developed by MAS, the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA), Singapore Exchange Regulation (SGX RegCo) and other Ministries. They included the introduction of legislation that prescribed alternative arrangements for conducting virtual general meetings, and the publication of a checklist to guide issuers under safe distancing requirements. Listed issuers were also given more time to hold their annual general meetings and to release their unaudited full year financial statements, in view of the practical challenges posed by the safe distancing measures.
- Joint ACRA-MAS-SGX RegCo statement, published on 1 October 2020, on guidance on the conduct of general meetings
- SGX RegCo media release, published on 22 April 2020, on auto-extension for release of unaudited financial results for FYs that ended February, March and April 2020
- Joint ACRA-MAS-SGX media release, published on 13 April 2020, on additional guidance on the conduct of general meetings during elevated safe distancing period
- SGX RegCo media release, published on 7 April 2020, on granting of automatic 60-day extension to issuers to hold AGMs
Extended credit and insurance support measures for individuals and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
5 October 2020 and 24 June 2021
On 5 October 2020, MAS and the financial industry launched a set of extended support measures to help individuals and SMEs facing continued difficulties meeting their loan and insurance premium payments, while providing a gradual pathway to resume full repayments. These measures eased temporary cashflow pressures for individuals and businesses, while facilitating borrowers to reduce their debt, and policyholders to maintain their insurance coverage. For insurance premium payments, the application window for Deferred Premium Payment was extended by another six months to 31 March 2021. This allowed affected policyholders to apply for premium deferment for their life and health insurance policies over a 12-month period. For loan payments, the extended credit relief measures were more targeted, with individuals demonstrating income impact and SMEs operating in the more impacted sectors granted a longer period of reduced loan repayments. These measures were due to expire on 30 June 2021.
On 24 June 2021, MAS and the financial industry extended the availability of the credit relief measures by three months, till 30 September 2021. As the COVID-19 restrictions had impacted borrowers unevenly, the extension was targeted at those individuals and businesses who continued to experience cashflow difficulties, by giving them additional time to transition to full loan instalment repayments.
- MAS media release, published on 24 June 2021, on extension of support measures for individuals and SMEs in Tier 1 and 2 sectors
- MAS media release, published on 3 November 2020, on existing support measures that help SMEs impacted by legislation to facilitate restructuring of contracts
- MAS media release, published on 5 October 2020, on extension of support for individuals and SMEs who need more time to resume loan repayments
- MAS media release, published on 30 April 2020, on additional support provided to individuals by MAS and the finance industry
Extended facility to support lending by banks and finance companies to SMEs amid economic headwinds from COVID-19 pandemic
12 October 2020
MAS extended the MAS SGD Facility for Enterprise Singapore (ESG) Loans to complement the six-month extension of ESG’s Temporary Bridging Loan Programme (TBLP) from 1 April 2021 to 30 September 2021. Taken together, the Government’s risk sharing through the ESG Loan Schemes and MAS’ lower-cost funding through the Facility helped to reduce borrowing costs for local enterprises to a range of 1.5% to 3.0% per annum under the TBLP, from 6% or more for other unsecured working capital loans.
In consultation with MAS, SGX RegCo extended relief measures to support listed issuers amid the challenging COVID-19 climate
16 March 2021
On 8 April 2020, SGX RegCo introduced measures to allow Mainboard issuers to seek an enhanced share issue limit from their shareholders for pro-rata share issuances of up to 100% of its share capital (compared to 50% previously), to accelerate their fund-raising efforts. On 16 March 2021, SGX RegCo extended this measure to allow Mainboard issuers up to 31 December 2021 to seek or renew the enhanced share issue limit.
MAS, Securities Industry Council (SIC) and SGX RegCo extended the temporary measures to allow for electronic dissemination of rights issue and take-over documents
29 June 2021
MAS, SIC and SGX RegCo initiated temporary measures to permit the electronic dissemination of offer documents. This enabled rights issues and take-over or merger transactions to take place while reducing the manpower needed to be physically present at workplaces to prepare, print and deliver the offer documents. The measures will be in place until they are revoked or amended.
- MAS media release, published on 29 June 2021, on further extension of electronic dissemination of rights issue and take-over documents beyond 30 June 2021
- MAS media release, published on 29 September 2020, on extension of electronic dissemination of rights issue and take-over documents till 30 June 2021
- MAS media release, published on 6 May 2020, on electronic dissemination of rights issue and take-over documents allowed until 30 September 2020