The state-backed lender is looking to help small- and mid-sized businesses who were hit by the coronavirus crisis, but healthy before the pandemic surfaced.
Zuercher Kantonalbank is setting aside 300 million Swiss francs ($338 million) in emergency credit for small- and mid-sized Swiss businesses hit by the crisis, it said in a statement on Wednesday. «The bridge loans are meant to lend hope to businesses which would be having a healthy year if it weren't for the pandemic,» ZKB corporate banking head Juerg Buehlmann said in a statement (in German).
The loans are open to companies which fulfill cantonal and federal requirements as «hardship» cases. The loans are meant to bridge the period between year-end and the end of the first quarter, when federal help kicks in.
ZKB said it is setting up a task force of roughly 30 bankers to get credit to companies faster than usual. It aims to support businesses which were healthy before the pandemic hit and stand good chances of snapping back from the economic crisis wrought by it.
