Agribusiness banking specialist Rabobank has announced support measures for farming clients affected by this week’s devastating fires in New South Wales.
Rabobank national manager Country Banking Australia Todd Charteris said the bank’s staff had been making contact with clients in bushfire-affected areas – primarily east of Dunedoo around Leadville, Turill, Cassilis and Coolah – to check on their safety and wellbeing, offer assistance and gauge the extent of any damage to their enterprise.
“While we haven’t been able to make contact with all our clients in bushfire-affected areas due to the mobile network being down in some areas, we are continuing to try to reach all impacted clients to check on their welfare and offer support and assistance,” he said.
Mr Charteris said with the 54,725 hectare ‘Sir Ivan’ bushfire still being contained, and with numerous fires burning around the state in areas including Gloucester, Boggabri, Mudgee and on New South Wales’ mid-north coast, there were concerns the impact could become more significant and widespread.
“This is particularly a concern with weather conditions forecast to deteriorate later in the week, with the Bureau expecting a return of hot and windy conditions,” he said.
Mr Charteris said the fires had caused considerable damage to agriculture.
“While it is too early to gauge the full extent of damage to agricultural land, infrastructure and livestock, there have been a number of farming properties affected,” he said.
Mr Charteris said the bank would work directly with individual clients to help support them through immediate difficulties with Rabobank providing a range of assistance measures to those in applicable circumstances.
These included:
- deferral of scheduled loan repayments
- waiving of break costs on early redemption of Farm Management Deposits
- waiving of fees on loan increases necessary to assist in rebuilding operations and
- waiving of fees for equipment finance contract variations.
Rabobank has urged any impacted clients who had not yet spoken to the bank to contact their local branch or phone the bank on 1800 025 484.
Rabobank Australia & New Zealand Group is a part of the international Rabobank Group, the world’s leading specialist in food and agribusiness banking. Rabobank has more than 115 years’ experience providing customised banking and finance solutions to businesses involved in all aspects of food and agribusiness. Rabobank is structured as a cooperative and operates in 40 countries, servicing the needs of approximately 8.6 million clients worldwide through a network of more than 1000 offices and branches. Rabobank Australia & New Zealand Group is one of Australasia’s leading rural lenders and a significant provider of business and corporate banking and financial services to the region’s food and agribusiness sector. The bank has 94 branches throughout Australia and New Zealand.
Media contacts:
Denise Shaw
Head of Media Relations
Rabobank Australia & New Zealand
Phone: 02 8115 2744 or 0439 603 525
Email: denise.shaw@rabobank.com
Skye Ward
Media Relations Manager
Rabobank Australia
Phone: 02 4855 1111 or 0418 216 103
Email: skye.ward@rabobank.com
