Wave of credit for small firms

More than 9 billion euros will have been channeled to Greek enterprises by the end of the year through the working capital supplied by commercial banks with the support of the Hellenic Development Bank.

After the €3.9 billion of working capital issued through the two main funding tools – Entrepreneurship Fund II and the Guarantee Fund – an extra €5.2 billion will have been issued by year-end. The bulk of that will come from the second phase of Guarantee Fund credit that Development Minister Adonis Georgiadis announced late last week: An additional €1 billion of state collateral is being transferred to the Hellenic Development Bank, opening the way for new bank loans of €3.5 billion.

The distribution balance in this new phase will be more in favor of small and medium-sized enterprises, with very small enterprises also securing a share. This was after the 50-50 split in the first phase between large companies and SMEs. Therefore, €220 million will be directed toward credit for very small enterprises, which along with bank leveraging should lead to loans of €500 million in totai.

Source:ekathimerini.com