BPFI Economic Recovery Plan For SMEs

We wrote recently about the effect of the COVID-19 crisis on the banking sector. The Banking and Payments Federation of Ireland ("BPFI") members, including the five main retail banks, subsequently confirmed on 30 April that a further three-month extension to the current payment break will be made available to customers that continue to be directly impacted by the fallout from the pandemic, making a payment break of up to six months in total.

Also on 30 April, the BPFI published its Economic Recovery Plan (the "Plan") setting out measures to facilitate liquidity and capital flow to SMEs. The Irish government is looking at putting in place a better set of funding schemes or amending the existing ones, so it is likely that a number of the BPFI's proposals will be substantially enacted.