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The European Commission has accepted a request by Romania's National Credit Guarantee Fund for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (FNGCIMM) to undergo evaluation so that after winning accreditation from the European Commission it can become an InvestEU Programme implementing partner.
According to a FNGCIMM press statement, it could become an implementing partner under the InvestEU Programme alongside the EIB Group, the main partner of the InvestEU Fund and other international financial institutions, such as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the Council of Europe Development Bank, and the Nordic Investment Bank.
According to the accreditation schedule, FNGCIMM will move to the next stage, of the actual evaluation of institutional activity by pillars. FNGCIMM has been mandated to initiate the process of selecting an independent external auditor that will carry out the evaluation in accordance with the European commission's terms of reference, Agerpres informs.
The procedure for the procurement of audit services, with the submission of binding offers and the presentation of the specifications, followed by the actual selection of the auditor, will be performed transparently and as pledged in the schedule of the procedure.
During the evaluation phase, FNGCIMM initiated the necessary steps to benefit from guidance and technical assistance provided by the InvestEUAdvisory Hub, as well as support from the Ministry of Finance for the accreditation of the institution and access to the indirect European guarantee.
"Starting the evaluation process on the nine pillars, in accordance with the standards of the EC, is an important test and a new challenge to FNGCIMM. I am confident that we will go through the stages, winning the necessary accreditation to become an implementing partner under the InvestEU Programme. We will make efficient use of the resources at our disposal, so that our beneficiaries may have easy access to a diverse range of financial instruments financed from European funds at low financing-guarantee costs," according to FNGCIMM Director General Dumitru Nancu.
The National Credit Guarantee Fund for Small and Medium Enterprises (FNGCIMM) is a non-bank financial institution with venture capital established in order to facilitate access of SMEs to funding by granting guarantees for financing instruments extended by commercial banks or other sources. FNGCIMM implements government programmes aimed at economic recovery, business environment development, as well as job creation and support, operating as a joint stock company, with the Romanian government as sole shareholder, under the prudential supervision of the National Bank of Romania.
The FNGCIMM guarantee is of maximum 80% of the loan value, without exceeding the amount of 2.5 million euro/beneficiary and is issued at the request of the partner financing institutions for approved funding based on an analysis of documents presented by the financier.
FNGCIMM collaborates with 27 financial institutions under working agreements. The fund's guarantee is the most liquid guarantee, payable within 90 days of the financing request by the financier, accompanied by full documentation, as against at least two years, the average duration of a mortgage.
FNGCIMM provides nationwide coverage, and based on its membership in the AECM (European Association of Guarantee Institutions) an association that brings together 47 mutual, private and public guarantee funds, development banks and counter-guarantee funds from 23 EU member states, as well as from Turkey, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Russian Federation and Kosovo), it operates along European rules and principles.
