Thank you for your continued focus on how we can support Canadians.
I would say that in fact we have pushed hard for the banking sector to support its customers, and of course that means supporting Canadians. We worked hard to encourage the banks to get to an ability for those in challenge with their credit cards to defer their credit card payments and to take down the interest charges. In most cases, they're now half of what they were before the pandemic. I think that was certainly a positive step for us working together.
I think in terms of the liquidity that we put in the market for banks to use, I'd just like to give you some statistics.
According to the Bank of Canada, total business financing growth increased to 10.7% in April from 7.4% in March. Loan growth was very strong at 30%, driven by non-mortgage loans. These figures don't include the now over 665,000 businesses that got the CEBA loan. I'll also tell you that this week the big six banks reported payments deferred on $67 billion worth of loans.
Mr. Julian, I will always be working hard to push the banks to make sure that they're supporting their customers. We are absolutely expecting everyone to play a part in this challenge.
The money we've put into people's hands directly, supplemented by those loan deferrals, means we've very much filled an important gap in the economy, but there is more to do. We will be expecting all participants to do more to help us get through this.