Affordable farming finance provider the Regional Investment Corporation (RIC) is pleased to celebrate its two-year anniversary on 1 July 2020 and is proud of the valuable financial support for Australian farmers and farm-related small businesses with more than 800 loans valued at over $870 million approved since 1 July 2018.
In the past two years the RIC has supported hundreds of drought-affected farmers with more than 720 Drought Loans valued at more than $730 million approved since 1 July 2018. The RIC estimates its Drought Loan customers will benefit from up to $85 million in interest savings through the loan’s valuable two years’ interest free terms.
RIC Chief Executive Officer Bruce King said the RIC is pleased to celebrate its two-year anniversary and while the total loan value is significant, the money saved in interest through the Drought Loan is also making a meaningful difference to regional Australia.
“We have achieved a lot in two years and have grown from receiving just six loan applications in July 2018 to consistently receiving hundreds of loan applications a month. The most pleasing thing about what we do though is knowing the financial relief and benefit that our loans provide for farmers and farm-related small businesses.
“With more than 720 Drought Loans approved since July 2018 with an average value of $1 million, not only are we supporting farmers to prepare for, manage and recover from drought, we anticipate our customers will save more than $85 million through the interest-free terms, or around $120,000 per customer over the first two-years, based on a $1 million loan at a 6 per cent business loan interest rate,” said Mr King.
“Some of the things that farmers might be using their interest savings on could be to reinvest back into their farm business, spend their money locally to support regional economies or it could be what enables them to keep staff on during tough times.
“While we’re proud of what we’ve achieved during the first two years, we know we also have a lot of work to do to keep up with the demand for our loan products and improve our loan processing times to get the money in customer’s pockets faster.”
