The European Commission (EC) has approved the extension, until 30 June 2022, of the programs included in the IMM Invest aid scheme, Dumitru Nancu, director general of the National Credit Guarantee Fund for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (FNGCIMM), announced, as quoted by Agerpres. So far, 40,000 guarantees have been granted through IMM Invest, and the financial ceiling allocated to this scheme, worth 15 billion lei, has been exhausted.
“The SME Invest program is the largest program for small and medium-sized enterprises. The figures show the fiscal impact, but I want to mention that both AgroInvest and the IMM Invest program are the largest public-private partnership in Romania. It is the Romanian Government together with the entire financial-banking system in Romania. At the moment we have agreements with all the financial-banking institutions in Romania within the framework of this program. I also have good news: The European Commission has approved the extension until 30 June 2022 of this temporary state aid scheme, which includes the two program – the SME Invest program and the AgroInvest sub-program. This means that the program will be extended for the next six months, until 30 June 2022,” said Nancu.
According to the latest data presented by the head of the FNGCIMM, 40,000 guarantees have been granted so far through IMM Invest and the financial ceiling allocated to this scheme, worth 15 billion lei, has been exhausted.
“Since the start of the program on 1 June 2020 and to date, 40,000 guarantees have been granted, loans guaranteed by the Romanian Government. The SME Invest 2021 program has currently been allocated a guarantee ceiling of 15 billion lei, of which one billion for AgroInvest. The very high demand for this program has led the Government to react quickly to the farmers’ needs and so the ceiling has now practically tripled. We have requests for 2.7 billion lei, and the remaining 12.3 billion lei is for SME Invest. The 15 billion lei ceiling has been exhausted. At the end of this month, we are going to make a reallocation between the financial institutions that have spent the allocated ceiling and those that still have the ceiling. At the moment, there are four financial-banking institutions that have exhausted the allocated ceiling and have requested an increase,” Dumitru Nancu pointed out.
Representatives of banking institutions, employers and associations in the sector participated on Tuesday in the second edition of the “Banking Forum by Financial Intelligence” event.