How SME Bank Can Help You
By Zul • Dec 19th, 2007 • Category: Career •
SME Bank or Bank Perusahaan Kecil dan Sederhana exists since a couple of years ago (2005 in exact) and the objective of the establishment is to help developing Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia. SME Bank also acts as a one-stop financial solution provider for aspiring businessmen.
If you thought of quitting your job and secure financial loans for your start up business then SME Bank’s help can be handy.
The Definition of an SME
Before you approach the SME Bank, you must understand the definition of Small Medium Enterprise (SME) itself. A business is only eligible for financial assistance from the SME Bank if it falls within the SME category. A few factors that govern the classification of business as an SME are number of employees, industry and total sales/revenue of the company. An SME will be also further categorized as Micro, Small or Medium SME.
Before this, no standard definition of SME was established and as such, different agencies have been defining SMEs according to their own criteria. In June 2005, The National SME Development Council announced the official and common definition of SMEs. It was documented into a 14-page PDF file. You can download the PDF file here to study the definition and criteria. Otherwise, if you want a shorter version, click the summarized definition of SME from SME Info.
Various Financial Helps Available
SME Bank’s financial assistance or loans are eligible for start-up businesses as well as those wanting to expand their existing operation. But it does not stop there as the bank also offers financial aids for franchise businesses too. This is a program coordinated by PNS (Permodalan Nasional Berhad) with the help of SME Bank as a partner.
The franchise financial program is not limited to franchisees (e.g. if you want to open up a KFC or a 7-Eleven) but also applicable if you plan to bring an oversea franchise business into this country (hence you become the master franchisee) or if you’re running a successful SME and plan to franchise your business (you become the franchisor). More info on SME Franchise is available here.
SME Bank works closely with other government bodies and agencies such as MARA (Majlis Amanah Rakyat), MEDEC (Malaysia Entrepreneur Development Center), MECD (Ministry of Entrepreneur and Co-Operative Development) and others in a synergized effort to develop and organize development programs for entrepreneurs.
Also, under a program called SME Professional, the SME Bank extends financial aid for those graduates or professionals (e.g. doctors, lawyers, chartered accountant and so on) who wish to start their own practice. The SME Professional is a partnership program between the SME Bank, CIMB Bank, MARA and PUNB.
How Much Money You Can Get?
The amount of the financial loan eligible depends on certain criteria, and will be mainly defined by your SME category e.g. Micro, Small or Medium. Roughly, a Micro SME can get up to RM500,000 loan (this is already a lot, folks!), Small SME RM5 million and Medium SME RM 10 million. However, this is just a rough guideline and may change depending on circumstances.
What do I need to do before getting the financial loan from SME Bank?
A business plan. That’s right. The SME Bank officers usually refer a business plan as an RP, or Rancangan Perniagaan. This will not be covered today but in one of the future postings since this will be another lengthy write-up. If you are new to this blog, you can subscribe to our future postings through here.
Other posts you may want to read:
- 5 Financial Loans by SME Bank
- What is SME?
- MECD’s Skim Usahawan Siswazah
- Your Questions Answered
- SMEs Urged To Utilize Business Loans
[...] you can get financial assistance from venture capitalists or financial institutions. Here is where SME Bank comes in [...]
[...] Click here for definition of SMEs. These companies are yet many steps behind the giants and trendsetters of the industry, but always remember that there are good reasons why you can find working in a smaller company full filling. Azmeen, Zaki and Jason also shared their own fascinating points of view on this. In a way, such an award is a positive indication that the company is moving in a right path, and also tells you a lot about the vision of the people behind the brand name. [...]
Dear SME,
SME bank is something that most small businessmen can turn for help ideally. Therefore SME bank must be the rescuer of business man who has business and hope to improve their business. Often applying the available commercial bank is difficult as commercial banks are interested to share the profit of business men rather than helping the business men. As such the commercial banks only extended loan to those company with large profit not because they are looking guarantee for their loans, but because they want to tap the profit too. Having said that, SME if really like to help small business man, the criteria of approving loan to business man should be different from the commercial bank. Otherwise, there is no different among all banks except the amount of profit or interest they get is the different. Take for instance, whatever required by commercial bank to approve the loan, that is what SME wants. Therefore if ones do not get loan from commercial bank, it is not worth for him to try on the SME unless he has a strong backing from some influential figure. I suggest the SME must look into a more effective way of disimbursing loan to its customers by reducing paper work. Especially if the applicant gives a liquidatable asset as a colateral.
Thank you.
[...] Click here for definition of SMEs. These companies are yet many steps behind the giants and trendsetters of the industry, but always remember that there are good reasons why you can find working in a smaller company full filling. Azmeen, Zaki and Jason also shared their own fascinating points of view on this. In a way, such an award is a positive indication that the company is moving in a right path, and also tells you a lot about the vision of the people behind the brand name. [...]
Saya yang bernama diatas ingin bertanya tentang fixed deposit..Gikalau saya mempunyai wang sebanyak RM 50,000.00 depositkan dalam bank sebagai Fixed deposit and gadai selama 5 tahun..dan mengambil laon daripada pihak bank sebanyak RM 50,000.00 berapakan interest yang saya kena bayar kepada pihak bank dan berapakan pihak bank akan bayar interest kepada saya..tujuan saya adalah untuk menperluaskan sector perternakan saya..,Saya juga ingin tahu apakah procedure dan document yang perlu saya sediakan..saya menpunyai lembu tenusu sebanyak 50 ekor,saya juga ingin pihak bank menberi tunjuk ajar kepda saya bagaimana nak mengembangkan perniagaan perternakan saya….set ternakan yang saya mempunyai adalah sebanyak Rm 125,000.00…sila tunjuk ajar dan memberi peluang kepada saya untuk maju kehadapan…
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