YANGON – Myanmar Tourism Bank (MTB) announced it will begin providing Union of Myanmar Travel Association (UMTA) members uncollateralised loans for small- to medium-sized businesses starting this month.
MTB, a bank serving the tourism sector, announced the loan for UMTA members, who are primarily travel and tour companies this week, according to a report by Myanmar Times.
As a tourism-related bank, we will focus on lending to this sector. But we also plan to offer financial support to other related sectors and businesses to add further support for the tourism industry,– MTB chair, U Yan Win
The loans will be released within two weeks to a month once applicants provide the necessary documents for the application, said MTB Deputy managing director Andrew Khant.
Loans are capped at K20 million (US$13,221) for applicants who show a viable plan for use of the funds.
There are also plans to offer the loans to other tourism-sector businesses, Khant adds.
The uncollateralised loans are offered at an interest of 13% a year, and applicants are required to take up credit guarantee insurance (CGI) from Myanmar Insurance.
“As a tourism-related bank, we will focus on lending to this sector. But we also plan to offer financial support to other related sectors and businesses to add further support for the tourism industry,” said MTB chair U Yan Win.
Myanmar currently has more than 2,500 travel and tour companies, with a majority operating as small and medium-sized enterprises, according to Ministry of Hotels and Tourism statistics. UMTA has about 1,000 members.
MTB was one of five sector-specific banks granted a banking licence by the Central Bank of Myanmar (CBM) in 2017. It was founded by a public tourism company with an initial capital of K2 billion.