Small and medium-sized enterprises will enjoy a new loan guarantee method, namely the portfolio guarantee. They will be able to borrow from banks cheaper and faster. This is provided in a bill that was presented by PAS MP Dumitru Alaiba and Minister of Economy Sergiu Gaibu, IPN reports.
“Currently, we have a vicious circle in which an entrepreneur that needs financing cannot access a bank product, a loan because of the absence of guarantees. Following the introduction of this innovation in the legislation, we bank on loan acceleration on the part of ODIMM, in this case. The Republic of Moldova has immense opportunities and we should only move faster to materialize them,” Dumitru Alaiba stated in a news conference.
Sergiu Gaibu said that the requests for guarantees grew significantly in 2021. “We provided about 468 guarantees, which is half of all the guarantees issued by the Organization for the Development of the Sector of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises since its founding, during ten years. These 468 guarantees represent investments in the national economy to the value of over 1 billion lei. It is a huge sum, but this creates operational pressure on ODIMM. Therefore, we decided to make this amendment to the law so as to allow portfolio guarantees that will enable to swifter operationalize the resources available at ODIMM and to shorten the processing time,” stated the minister.
He also announced another novelty for SMEs. The commission of 0.5% charged now by ODIMM for providing a guarantee will be soon abolished. The move is expected to reduce the financing costs incurred by entrepreneurs.
