Shinhan Bank is serving up a variety of strategies to alleviate financial hardship in Cambodia from the fallout of the Covid-19 crisis, with restaurant owners the latest to benefit.

“We have introduced the ‘Good Spending’ programme, which has been conducted by implementing the initiative benchmarked by our parent bank in South Korea.

“This is a method for the prepaying of meals to support restaurants that are currently struggling with the financial effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We hope the programme will help keep these restaurants going during this difficult period,” Shinhan Bank (Cambodia) president Lee Taekyung told The Post.

Shinhan has also introduced Covid Support Loans and loan restructuring measures, and implemented a range of hardship mitigation programmes.

One restaurant owner to benefit from the Good Spending Programme said the assistance was greatly needed.

“This has been very helpful to my restaurant. It’s not a big amount for a large bank, but it allows me to meet the basic needs of paying my staff and running my restaurant. It really helps meet the current needs of restaurant owners.

“It is a truly beneficial contribution to help the places that need it as we suffer from the financial effects of the Covid-19 outbreak,” the owner said.

Lee said he was hopeful the programme would inspire other firms to follow suit.

“We have started with just a small amount, but we expect that this spirit of sharing will spread to other companies,” Lee said.

He said a commitment to helping people was at the core of the bank.

“As part of the Shinhan Financial Group’s ‘A Better World through the Power of Finance’ mission, we not only focus on corporate social responsibility [CSR], but also on helping people and society by introducing and providing advanced financial products and services to Cambodians,” said Lee.

The Seoul-based financial institution last month donated $15,000 to Cambodian institutions in the Kingdom as economies across the globe wrestle with the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Shinhan Bank donated $7,000 to the Ministry of Health and $8,000 to the Union of Youth Federations of Cambodia (UYFC) for coronavirus measures.

“The donation budget has been provided by our parent bank, under Shinhan Financial Group’s ‘One Shinhan Programme’ across all our subsidiaries in 20 countries around the world.

“As we are all aware, businesses have suffered hugely due to the Covid-19 pandemic, with millions of people across the world losing their jobs and incomes,” Lee said.

South Korea’s largest lender has also teamed up with ride-hailing service Tada to provide easier access to its products.

“The Tada Loan Process brings greater convenience to Tada customers applying for loans from Shinhan Bank through the Tada ecosystem.

“There are many loan products that customers can apply for through the Tada app, and they will be directly referred to the bank for further assessment.

“I hope the bank can now reach out to many more customers through this cooperation with Tada,” Lee said of the partnership.

Shinhan Bank – which has been operating in the Kingdom for 12 years – is running ongoing CSR projects, including supporting the Dail Community, a volunteer organisation created in South Korea to support education and supply meals for disadvantaged families in Cambodia.

Thmor Da Junior High School is among those to have benefited from such assistance, while the Scholarship Programme is open every year to underprivileged students in the provinces.

“CSR is part of the Shinhan philosophy because as a bank we are not only concerned with profits and increasing the number of customers, we are also concerned about society as a whole and the difficulties people face,” said Lee.