SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The California Bankers Association (CBA) released the following statement regarding the California banking industry’s response to the coronavirus (COVID-19):

“California banks are actively monitoring the latest reports from the Center for Disease Control and taking numerous precautions to help ensure the safety of their customers and employees. Banks have well-developed business continuity plans and are prepared and ready to help their customers in this time of need.

“When possible, customers are being encouraged to access their accounts from home and take advantage of mobile banking opportunities to monitor their accounts at any time to check balances, make payments, transfer funds and deposit checks.

“Many banks are also taking steps to accommodate affected customers through hardship programs, small business support, extended banker availability hours and other measures to address individual circumstances.

“We encourage any customer who has been directly impacted and is experiencing a hardship to outreach to their financial institution as soon as they can to specifically discuss their individual financial situation and understand what assistance may be available to them.

“Banks are also implementing remote work policies for non-customer facing staff, increasing social distancing measures for all customer-facing staff, and restricting staff travel.

“Our members continue to closely monitor the situation and evaluate additional measures to support their customers and communities as needs arise.”

###