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WHEN Bank Pertanian was rebranded as "Agrobank" last April, much of the ire was directed at the name change, which was lambasted by language nationalists as denigrating the status of Bahasa Malaysia as the official and national language. Now, however, it has come under fire for not living up to its role as the major provider of agricultural credit. Santubong member of parliament Datuk Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar, who is also the deputy speaker of Parliament, has criticised the agricultural bank for being business-unfriendly and too bureaucratic. He cited the failure to disburse a RM22 million loan to finance a deep-sea fishing venture as an example of the red tape.

Whatever the reasons for the hold-up, the rebuke from the Santubong MP has to be taken seriously by a bank whose role is to boost agricultural development and whose new corporate identity and image was designed to make it more efficient and effective. This suggests that it has to do even more to address the bottlenecks in its lending practices in order to process applications and disburse loans within a reasonable time-frame. In the case of the workers who have lost their jobs during the economic slowdown, there is considerable scope for self-employment in agriculture. As the institution identified as the medium to channel the micro-financing to them, it is crucial that Agrobank delivers without undue delay the capital they need to start their new ventures.

In all fairness to Agrobank, however, it must be said that it is not the only financial institution that has been under fire lately. The manner in which other banks assess risk and approve loans has also been slammed. Despite the recent cuts in the overnight policy rate and ample liquidity in the banking system, there have been persistent complaints from businessmen about the difficulties of obtaining financing. While the banks are flush with funds, this certainly should not mean that they should throw caution to the wind, or be pressured to make bad loans. But while prudence in lending will still be required, bankers should not be unduly cautious. There is an urgent need for banks to ensure that credit flows to bankable businesses that are trying to stay afloat or expand, and to the new entrepreneurs looking for capital to get started. At a time when we are banking on the financial institutions to make loans more readily available to promote growth and boost demand, what we need is speed and boldness from our bankers, not institutional inertia and timidity.

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