The coronavirus not only threatens our health, it is also hitting our economy particularly hard. A large proportion of employees are facing temporary unemployment and many companies and the self-employed are forced to temporarily close down. Other companies and self-employed people are being forced to reduce their activities significantly because they can no longer get the required parts or because customers are staying away.

Within the framework of the Federal Plan for Social and Economic Protection, the federal government has already taken a whole series of exceptional measures to cushion the economic blow for employees, the self-employed and businesses. These include deferral of payment of personal income tax, withholding tax, VAT and social security contributions. This provides a buffer to absorb the first financial shock. The option of temporary unemployment due to force majeure has also been relaxed and a bridging right has been introduced for the self-employed.

Overheads and cash flow problems

Despite all these measures, many companies, the self-employed and private individuals are left with significant fixed costs. They have to repay loans, pay rent and invoices, resulting in cash flow problems.

Alexander De Croo, Finance Minister: “This is an exceptional crisis that calls for exceptional measures. We are currently doing everything we can to prevent healthy businesses from going under and families from facing payment difficulties. That would set off a downward spiral and only exacerbate the current crisis. We are therefore doing everything we can to assist families and businesses.”

Johan Thijs, Chairman at Febelfin: “The Belgian banks want to support the economy as much as possible in this difficult period. They are going to make an unprecedented effort with regard to businesses and private individuals who are suffering the financial consequences of the crisis. The aim is to give them every opportunity to move quickly towards normalising the situation, with the least possible damage on all fronts. In a word: the banking sector provides maximum support for the continuity of Belgian businesses and private individuals."

"We absolutely must avoid companies, self-employed people and families who did not have financial problems before the corona crisis getting into trouble due to the severe shock caused by this pandemic", says NBB Governor Pierre Wunsch. "Through the package of measures we are announcing today, we are taking a major step in that direction. Our country is launching a financial bazooka to safeguard lending to Belgian companies and the self-employed during the crisis months and to deal with any problems that may arise. In addition, the banks will offer a six-month moratorium on existing loans to Belgian businesses, the self-employed and private individuals facing payment problems as a result of the corona crisis. Both the banks and the government have made a very substantial effort. The central banks of the euro area, such as your National Bank of Belgium together with the ECB, are doing everything necessary to mitigate the effects of this crisis.”

Deferral of payment and guarantee scheme

In order to safeguard funding for families, the self-employed and businesses during this difficult time, the federal government, on the initiative of the Finance Minister and with the support of the National Bank of Belgium, has drawn up an agreement with the financial sector.

This agreement consists of two pillars:

• The financial sector undertakes to grant viable, non-financial businesses and the self-employed, as well as mortgage borrowers with payment problems as a result of the corona crisis, postponement of payment until 30 September 2020 without charge.
• The federal government will activate a guarantee scheme for all new loans and credit lines with a maximum duration of 12 months, which banks provide to viable non-financial businesses and the self-employed. In this way, funding to the economy will be maintained.

The guarantee scheme will have the following characteristics:

• A total guarantee amount of € 50 billion.
• All new additional loans and credit lines with a maximum maturity of 12 months (excluding refinancing loans) provided until 30 September 2020 will be covered by the guarantee scheme.
• Upon expiry of the guarantee scheme, the amount of losses incurred on loans under the guarantee scheme will be assessed. The burden will be shared between the financial sector and the public sector as follows:
  • The first 3% of losses will be borne entirely by the financial sector.
  • For losses between 3% and 5%, 50% of the losses will be borne by the financial sector and 50% by the government.
  • For losses higher than 5%, 80% of the losses will be borne by the government and 20% by the financial sector.

This means that if we head towards a reasonably standard economic crisis, all losses will be borne by the financial sector. In that case, there is no cost for the government. If, however, we are faced with a very exceptional economic crisis, the government will take on part of the cost. Over the past ten years (including during the financial crisis of 2008-2009), the maximum loss was around 1%. The new guarantee scheme that has been agreed means that the government vouches to intervene in the costs when the economic crisis is at least three times as severe as the financial crisis of 2008-2009.

The National Bank of Belgium, together with Febelfin, will set up a monitoring system to monitor the guarantee scheme as well as the sector's commitments.

“Last week, I called on the Belgian banks to redouble their efforts. I'm grateful that they have agreed to play their role to the full and take on a far-reaching commitment to help our families and businesses in this difficult period”, concluded Finance Minister De Croo.