VirtuAg: Commonwealth Bank steps up efforts to keep clients afloat

Commonwealth Bank of Australia is partnering with The Weekly Times for the upcoming VirtuAg virtual field-day event.

Healthy partnership: CBA is partnering with The Weekly Times for the upcoming VirtuAg virtual field-day event.

• Enter Australia’s virtual field days, VirtuAg, here.

COMMONWEALTH Bank Australia’s contribution to Australian farming and regional business stretches back more than 100 years.

Now it is looking forward to the next century by partnering with The Weekly Times for the upcoming VirtuAg virtual field-day event.

“We are actively involved in field days every year across the country,” said Commonwealth Bank executive general manager, regional and agribusiness banking, Grant Cairns.

“Unfortunately given the circumstances, a lot of field days have been postponed or cancelled, so we think VirtuAg is a great initiative.”

Commonwealth Bank has launched an array of measures to help the sector weather COVID-19. Along with other banks, it has partnered with the government in the Coronavirus Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Guarantee Scheme, allowing businesses with a turnover of up to $50 million to borrow up to $250,000 over three years and have 50 per cent of the loan guaranteed by the government.

“We’ve approved more than $650 million in those loans, getting critical working capital and money into the Australian economy in this time of need,” Mr Cairns said.

Commonwealth Bank has also passed on a 1 per cent interest-rate reduction on its BetterBusiness loans, waived merchant-terminal rental fees and automatically deferred the interest on principal repayments for business loans for three months.

That deferral is set to be extended another three months.

For more details, visit commbank.com.au