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More than 57,800 small and medium-sized enterprises with a total of about 726,200 jobs have signed up for the IMM Invest program, and about 5,000 files have received the banks' approval so far, Dumitru Nancu, director general of the National Credit Guarantee Fund for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (FNGCIMM) said on Tuesday.
"We got 57,807 files, and the banks have processed and approved about 5,000 of them. This is the first and only program to produce effects within a week of their approval. Obviously we cannot override internal rules. There are 22 banks, each with its own rules, but then of course these must not deviate from the primary and secondary legislation under the SME Invest program. Towards the end of the week, there will be a week since the banks started their assessments," Dumitru Nancu explained during the 'Business in the New Economy' webinar.
He pointed out that the credit guarantee and state aid mix available under the program is unprecedented.
"We estimate that by the end of this week we will have a significant number of approvals. Practically an assessment by the bank doesn't take more than five days, the banks have automated their applications. We will see the direct effects at the end of the month. We want to see how much of the ceiling has been subscribed. Starting with June 1 we will either reallocate funding, or supplement the ceiling," said the FNGCIMM director general.
IMM Invest is the largest SME-support program Romania has had in 30 years. Its main benefits are: a state guarantee of up to 90 percent of the loan amount, loan interest fully subsidized by the state at least until the end of the year, zero fees for the state guarantee, zero early repayment fee, and an up to 72-month guarantee period.
For the businesses that apply for loans/credit lines for working capital, the financing can go as high as 5,000,000 lei with an up to 80 percent guarantee for medium-sized enterprises and to 1,000,000 lei with a maximum guarantee of 90 percent for small and micro-enterprises. The duration of the financing for the working capital is of 36 months at the most, with the possibility of extension by another 36 months; the interest rate is the three-month Robor + 2.5 percent per year.
For both loan types, the interest, the costs with granting, monitoring and management of the state guarantee will be borne from the state budget until December 31, 2020, with the possibility of extension.
