Maybank expects RM50m loans under ITplus TheEdge Daily, Monday, August 09, 2004 Malayan Banking Bhd expects to give out RM50 milion worth of loans to small and medium enterprises (SME) for the next 12 months under its newly launched Maybank ITplus financial package. The first of its kind, Maybank ITplus was designed in collaboration with Credit Guarantee Corporation Malaysia Bhd and IBM Malaysia Sdn Bhd to assist SMEs in acquiring critical information and communications technology capabilities. “We currently have 40,000 SME loan customers, and we anticipate double-digit growth (in SME loans) over the next year,” said Maybank executive vice president and head of enterprise financial services group, Muhamad Umar Swift, at the launch of Maybank ITplus in Kuala Lumpur on Aug 9. He said currently the SME sector contributed about 25% to the bank’s total loans. He said it expected to further increase its current 20% market share in the SME loans sector. "We have business centres and wide geographic reach, and we would continue to expand on that," Muhamad Umar said. Maybank ITplus will be available at its 38 business centres nationwide. He said Maybank ITplus provided a financing package amounting to between RM50,000 and RM500,000 to the SMEs for investments in hardware and software, with the support of a Maybank-IBM panel of independent solution vendors, including KarenSoft Technology Bhd and IFCA Consulting Group. CGC assistant general manager of operations, Khoo Kim Ho, said the company had guaranteed about 96,000 loans given by Maybank worth RM10.6 billion.