Bancherul - BANCI / ENGLISH / BCR granted new loans worth over 1 billion lei for the SMEs sector in the first eight months

EBRD and BCR representatives said yesterday at the signing of a financing agreement for energy efficiency to SMEs, that in this period of uncertainty the investments made to reduce costs and increase efficiency of a company are the most appropriate, in order for entrepreneurs to become more competitive domestic and outside the country.

The new EBRD facility energy efficiency for SMEs is worth 60 million euros, funds to be distributed by lending institutions, including BCR, which will benefit of 20 million euros.

The new EBRD project will help to reduce energy consumption in Romania, which is above the European average and is also a support for the SME sector, which needs help during the decline of the economy, said Claudia Pendred, EBRD Director for Romania.

This is the 15th loan disbursed by EBRD for BCR in the last 20 years of collaboration and the third in energy efficiency. BCR has provided to its customers loans of 25 million euros for energy efficiency projects, which of course helped to reduce power consumption in Romania, she added.

"The maximum amount eligible for a customer is up to one million, but we expect that most loans to have values below 250,000 euros. The credit period shall not exceed 5 years with a grace period of 2 years," said EBRD representative.

This funding is to add a European grant worth 20 million euros for technical assistance, which means that each project successfully finalised will receive a grant representing between 10 and 15% of the project.

Wolfgang Schoiswohl (photo), BCR Executive Vice President, said that for BCR, SMEs represent one of the key sectors in which the bank is and will still be present, according to the BCR and the Erste Group strategy.

Why this? For a healthy SME sector is the backbone of the economy, contributing to its growth and creates jobs.

"Is not a coincidence therefore that despite rumors and negative perception that SMEs are doing very poorly and that banks are not financing them, BCR granted in the first eight months new loans worth over 1 billion lei for the SMEs sector. This means an increase of about 10% of the total loan balance over the same period last year. A trend that we want to maintain in the second half of this year and in 2012, even at a higher intensity " said Wolfgang Schoiswohl.

According to him, one of the problems facing the whole sector of companies is the uncertainty, which causes a drop in demand for products and services on the domestic market, while export volumes began to decrease after a good performance last year.

Because of these uncertainties, there are limited investments in all sectors, because it is quite difficult in these times to predict which are the areas and industries a SMEs can grow.

"The success of the first two ERBD programs to finance energy efficiency is a proof that in this uncertain period, in which it is difficult to predict economic growth, investments made to reduce costs is the best solution for a company," said Wolfgang Schoiswohl.

The EBRD facility comes at a proper time, so as to allow Romanian SMEs to become more effective both on the domestic and foreign markets.