Almost 50 representatives of the executive and operational management of the commercial banks have participated yesterday to a meeting organized by EximBank aiming at identifying new cooperation opportunities in order to increase the usage of state guarantees and insurance products for the direct benefit of the local entrepreneurs, said the bank in a statement. 

EximBank is acting as sole state agent on the Romanian market for guarantees and insurance, having in its portfolio products that on one side are facilitating companies’ access to financing needed for development, innovate or create new employment and at the same time allow partner banks to accelerate the crediting activity having a consistent risk coverage for the respective credits.

The bank has recently launched a new guarantee product – the SMEs Guarantees Facility, that enables EximBank to make available a 200 Million lei guarantees facility to be used this year by the local commercial banks for financing the small and medium enterprises.

”The guarantees issued by the Romanian state through EximBank represent an extraordinary and accessible resource that we believe companies and mostly the banks should explore more. We have decided to organize this meeting especially for identifying the ways of energizing our partnerships with the commercial banks so that we can increase the usage of these instruments that have a double positive impact. We refer to sovereign guarantees, a tool that eases up the companies’ access to banking products under low risk conditions for the banks.”, said Traian Halalai, Executive President of EximBank.

Any commercial bank can now conclude an agreement for the SME Guarantees Facility with EximBank, thus benefiting from a state guarantee facility allowing EximBank to issue state guarantees up to a certain limit for the financing facilities granted by the partner bank to SMEs for investments and / or current activity. The risk coverage for the state guarantees issued by EximBank within the Facility varies as per the scope of financing, maximum 80% for the investment credits and maximum 70% for the credits granted for financing current activity.

Also, the commercial banks may access the counter guarantee under the state name and account, a product that allows EximBank to guarantee a maximum of 80% of the banking guarantee letters issued by the financial institutions for investment projects in priority economic domains. The counter guarantee is issued for the banking guarantee letters for bidding participation, advance payment reimbursement, good execution or other types of LBG requested under internal or exports contracts and follows the currency of the LBG or guarantee facility.