COVID-19: What are banks doing to support families and companies?

In view of the exceptional times created by the COVID-19 pandemic, the banking sector has been adopting measures to support families and companies, either on its own initiative or within the scope of government incentives.

These measures allow families and companies to overcome the tough constraints caused by the COVID-19 outbreak, both in terms of support specifically aimed at cash and liquidity needs or through a reduction in monthly charges for banking services.

The present mapping corresponds to the aggregate of measures publicly disclosed by the banks, and therefore does not imply, except for legally foreseen measures, that these are being applied by all banks operating in Portugal and/or are in force throughout the whole pandemic period.

MEASURES FOR FAMILIES

‒ Legal moratorium for mortgage loans and legal moratorium for consumer credit for educational purposes.

These moratoria are based on legislation and apply to all customers who are in the situations provided for by said legislation.

‒ Private moratorium for natural persons, who may be residents or non-residents in Portugal, on mortgage loans not covered by the legal moratorium.

‒ Private moratorium on consumer credit operations (e.g. personal and car loans) whose initial amount does not exceed EUR 75,000.00.

‒ Maintenance of  the conditions for basic service packages and mortgages in the event of a salary cut.

‒ Facilities and discounts on signing up for package accounts which provide access to various banking services online.

‒ Exemption on fees for some digital operations, such as MBWay transfers.

‒ Exemption on fees for new cards issuance, such as contactless cards.

‒ Expansion of services covered by health insurance policies: 24/7 online or telephone medical assistance, cover of COVID-19, among other illnesses.

MEASURES FOR BUSINESSES

‒ Loan moratorium pursuant to Decree-Law 10-J/2020 of 26 March.

This moratorium is based on the law and applies to all customers who are in situations provided for by said law.

‒ Provision of credit lines covered by a public guarantee to cover cash needs

‒ Exemption on commissions and monthly fees for automatic payment terminals (POS) to facilitate acceptance of low-value payments.

For concrete and detailed information on the support measures provided by each bank, please refer to their websites.

For further information on government measures to support the economy, please refer to the Government Portal “ESTAMOS ON”.