Standard Chartered Bangladesh has completed Bangladesh’s first automated over-the-weekend loan disbursement under its distributor finance program.
The first client to receive the funds from a distributor financing loan on a weekend was Nestle, Bangladesh Limited, said a press release.
It has been a long-standing demand from clients to arrange for disbursement of loans during the weekends.
Distributors need goods delivery during the weekend, but as manufacturers do not deliver the goods until they receive the funds, the clients had to draw the loans on Thursday, the last day before the weekend.
Now, through the disbursement of over-the-weekend automated loans, distributors will be able to drawdown the loan as and when required and will be able to save interest expense.
The Bank was the first in the country to launch a fully automated, online distributor financing program, called Flexiloan in 2018.
The Bank has now introduced enhanced capabilities enabling drawdown of these loans in the weekends as well.
This enhancement will empower distributors, which are usually small and medium enterprises, by giving them access to finance seven days of the week.
Luthful Arefin Khan, Head of Transaction Banking, Standard Chartered Bangladesh said, “We started our distributor financing program with the goal to support the many small and medium enterprises (SME) who are distributors for our corporate clients. Through this program, the distributors not only benefit from the collateral-free structure and competitive pricing, but also learn financial discipline and proper book-keeping. We understand that these loans are very time-critical, which is why we have made the disbursement fully automated and fully online. I would like to thank Nestle, Bangladesh for inspiring us to make this enhancement. I congratulate them on becoming the first client to drawdown these loans on a weekend.”
Deepal Abeywickrema, Managing Director, Nestle, Bangladesh Limited said “Nestle, Bangladesh Limited has been the pioneer in Customer Financing in Bangladesh with Standard Chartered Bank (SCB). I am excited to see the rollout of another “industry first” innovative solution, focused on “Customer Centricity,” together by Nestle, Bangladesh Limited and Standard Chartered Bank. The new solution will help us enhance the freshness and greatly improve the service level of our customers in bringing high-quality and world-class products to our consumers. I am sure this will be another great tool that other SMEs can equally benefit from. I thank SCB for being at the forefront of new advancements in banking solutions with Nestle, Bangladesh Limited.”
