Guarantees for loans raised by SMEs from banks will be higher

The guarantees provided for economic entities' bank loans through the Credit Guarantee Fund of the Organization for the Development of the SME Sector could be increased from 2010, the organization's director general Iulia Iabanji said in an interview, quoted by Info-Prim Neo. Iabanji said that the Credit Guarantee Fund now provides two products for SMEs. The first is a guarantee for up to 50% of the loan taken out from banks by working companies, but not more than 300,000 lei for up to five years, with a yearly commission of 2% of the guaranteed sum. The second product is intended for start-ups. The guarantee represents up to 70% of the loan, but not more than 100,000 lei for a period of up to three years, with a yearly commission of 2% of the guaranteed sum. “So far, we provided 25 guarantees for loans of 12 million lei. This means that for every guaranteed leu, the economic entities obtained by 3 lei from banks,” she said. Iulia Iabanji also said that the 5 million lei available in the Credit Grantee Fund and the size of the offered guarantees do not meet the market demands anymore. Therefore, the economic recovery and stabilization program for 2009 – 2011 provides for the increase of the Fund to up to 100 million lei by allocating more budget resources and attracting resources from potential foreign donors. “We hope that this will enable us to raise the guarantees for bank loans of up to 700,000 lei for operating companies and of up to 300,000 lei for start-ups from 2010,” she said. The Credit Guarantee Fund is used to guarantee loans for micro companies with a yearly turnover of up to 3 million lei, with up to nine employees and assets of up to 3 million lei as well as for small companies with a yearly turnover of up to 25 million lei and assets of up to 25 million lei that employ up to 49 persons.