ATB Financial has approved close to a quarter-billion dollars’ worth of mortgage, loan and credit card deferrals for Albertans since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In an interview Friday, ATB CEO Curtis Stange said the $240 million in deferred payments the Crown corporation has approved for customers since March 18 is illustrative of just how devastating the pandemic has been for Albertans’ livelihoods.
“Behind $240 million of payments are Albertans. They’re Albertans that have borrowed money to buy homes, to buy boats, to live their lives, to usher kids off to school,” Stange said. “Behind each payment deferral is a person.”
The home-grown financial institution, which released its 2020 financial results Thursday, grew its revenues 2.6 per cent over the previous year to $1.7 billion, an all-time record. However, that growth was overshadowed by a 14 per cent increase in loan loss provisions (to $385 million) due to March’s double economic whammy of COVID-19 and the oil price crash.
“There was what I would call a material increase in the provision from the month of March and where we were running before the pandemic and before the economic shock,” Stange said.
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https://calgarysun.com/business/local-business/atb-financial-approves-nearly-250m-in-loan-mortgage-deferrals-during-covid-19/wcm/97291edc-a616-4b50-bc0f-63f64fa2194a