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Vicepresident of the European Investment Bank (EIB), Andrew McDowell, stated on Thursday, in Bucharest, that the European Investment Bank Group is tripling its support for Romanian companies, from 500 million euro up to 1.38 billion euro.
The initiative for SMEs combines the structural funds with other resources of the EU and the EIB in order to offer loans for 5,000 Romanian SMEs in better conditions, contributing to the creation of jobs that are very necessary to the private sector. This has already worked well in the last year, reason for which they are increasing the dimension of the initiative with more than double the funds allotted earlier, said, on Thursday evening, in Bucharest, the vicepresident of the EIB, Andrew McDowell.
The EIB official participated in the signing of new contracts and modifications of existing agreements with Romanian financial intermediaries by which the volume of financing is increased. The new contracts, signed with CEC Bank, the Romanian Commercial Bank, BRD - Groupe Societe Generale, Libra Internet Bank, ProCredit Bank, Raiffeisen Bank and Unicredit Bank, will contribute, together with the existing ones concluded with Transilvania Bank and ING Bank Romania, to support SMEs and start-ups that need financing.
According to the EIB, the agreements with the mentioned financial institutions envisage facilitating access to financing for Romanian companies, through 60% guarantees for each loan and through the decreasing of the interest rates perceived by the banks.
Following the successful implementation of the Initiative for SMEs in Romania (SMEi), the Romanian authorities allotted an additional 150 million euro from the Regional Operational Programme, in co-financing with the European Fund for Regional Development, raising the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) budget within the initiative to 250 million euro. Through this increase and together with the additional resources on behalf of the EIB Group and the European Commission, up to 1.38 billion euro are available for Romanian companies through the SMEs Initiative, an EIB release mentions.
Deputy Director of the European Investment Fund Hubert Cottogni explained that using ESIF resources together with those of the EIB group and the EU's represents an excellent way to obtain as much as possible using as little as possible because it allows EIB to assume a part of the risk of financial intermediaries to the final benefit of Romanian SMEs. The additional ESIF resources made available to Romania, multiplied through commercial loans, will generate up to 1.38 billion euro in new loans for Romanian SMEs.
