News by Joyce Goh

“Many borrowers are starting to repay their loans,” said BNM deputy governor Jessica Chew.

Of that number, 98% have been approved, Bank Negara Malaysia said.

The bank reminded customers who have not applied for Repayment Assistance that they will have to resume payment for their loan/financing from October onwards.

Based on yesterday's closing of RM1.40, Affin Bank Bhd was trading at the lowest in terms of price-to-book value (P/BV) ratio. The country's smallest lender was trading at 0.29 times of P/BV, followed by Malaysia Building Society Bhd (MBSB) at 0.41 times.

Speaking at a media briefing, Rahman said the banks have managed to speak to 1.4 million borrowers of the over two million contacted. Currently, more than 380,000 contacted customers have confirmed that they require loan repayment assistance.

Chief executive officer Datuk Sulaiman Mohd Tahir: We think there should be another cut, the question is how much is the cut? The range [we expect] is about 25bps or as much as 50bps in the near term.

This is on top of the new stores that had opened in the mall during the RMCO (Recovery Movement Control Order) period — which began on June 10 and is supposed to end on Aug 31 — including the new Adidas flagship store, Brunello Cucinelli and Calia in June 2020; meanwhile, Dior and Karl Lagerfeld opened just last month (July 2020).

"They are retrenching about 10% to 20% of their staff force that stands at about 20,000," said a source.

Sources said Vogiatzakis informed the senior management of the media group of his decision this morning.

"Given the liquidity that we have in Malaysia, it is not an issue for us to support the stimulus package injection."