In April alone, 1,834 loans amounting to $1.06 billion were approved, bringing the total value of approved loans to $2.5 billion, exceeding the loans granted in the last two years.

More than 90 per cent of the loans have gone to SMEs, while about 70 per cent of the loans went to small businesses with less than $5 million in annual sales turnover, said Spring Singapore in a statement on Thursday.

Other initiatives such as the government's Special Risk-sharing Initiative (SRI) were also well-received. The new Bridging Loan Programme (BLP) was the most popular loan scheme, accounting for 53 per cent of total loan value approved to date.

The BLP offers a loan of up to $5 million, and provides companies with working capital.

Applications have been steadily rising since its launch in January. Last month, loan numbers went up by 50 per cent to 915 loans amounting to $640.2 million, said Spring Singapore.

In addition, the Loan Insurance Scheme Plus (LIS+), launched in February and administered by IE Singapore, has also seen strong take-up. LIS+ complements the existing scheme by having the Government insure loans which are beyond the capacity of current LIS insurers for a one-year period. This is to make larger tranches of trade financing lines available to businesses.

A total of 148 loans totalling $282.8 million have been approved under LIS+ since its inception three months ago.

These initiatives are part of a $2.3 billion government-backed financing package to help local businesses ride out the global economic slump. The core thrust of the schemes involve the Government taking on more risk in bank loans, to get banks to lend to cash-strapped firms.