Bloomberg South African banks are pushing for the creation of a loan-guarantee program to boost the flow of credit as lenders ramp up efforts to help clients cope with the coronavirus fallout. The nation is in its second week of a 21-day lockdown to contain the spread of Covid-19, which if extended could further cripple an economy already in recession. …

Bloomberg New Zealand’s central bank is not currently preparing retail banks for the introduction of a negative official cash rate, suggesting policy makers will resist cutting it further for the time being. The main reason the Reserve Bank committed to keeping its benchmark rate at 0.25% for at least a year “was to take away the imminent distraction of needing …

Bloomberg Lenders face continued difficulties in issuing financing under the $349 billion small business relief effort the Trump administration launched a week ago in response to the coronavirus outbreak, leaving mom-and-pop firms at growing risk of failure. Banks have been intermittently shut out of the government’s loan-processing system. They’re manually filling out forms — and are forced to start over …