SBI offers repayment relief for home loans

State Bank of India will provide relief to home and retail loan borrowers impacted by COVID-19 in the form of either a moratorium of up to 24 months or by rescheduling installments and extending the tenure by a period equivalent to the moratorium granted.

The moratorium period can be extended by a maximum of two years, the country’s largest lender said, setting the tone for other banks.

In line with RBI’s one-time relief, the scheme is available to borrowers who had availed of a home loan before March 1, 2020, and was regular in repayments until the COVID-19 lockdown.

But the borrowers will have to demonstrate that their income has been hit because of the pandemic.“For the purpose of restructuring, the bank will depend entirely on the customer’s assessment of when they expect their income to be normalized or to get employed,” said CS Shetty, Managing Director, SBI, while announcing the scheme.

The country’s largest lender has been the first to roll out a protocol for restructuring loans of retail borrowers who were affected by COVID-19.