- The Minister of Industry, Energy and Tourism, José Manuel Soria, signs a new contract with the Reciprocal Guarantee Societies to share the risk of guarantees and thus boost financing, prioritizing working capital and internationalization operations.
- Sand expects SGRs to grant guarantees to more than 10,000 SMEs and entrepreneurs in 2013 for more than 1,200 million euros.
- CERSA has in 2013 a budget allocation of the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism of 32 million euros.
The Minister of Industry, Energy and Tourism, José Manuel Soria, today signed two agreements to boost the financing of SMEs and entrepreneurs with the president of the Official Credit Institute (ICO), Román Escolano, and with the president of the Spanish Confederation of Mutual Guarantee Societies (CESGAR), Ramón González Rosalía.
Minister Soria framed the signing of these agreements in the package of measures to support SMEs and entrepreneurs committed by the President of the Government and approved by the Council of Ministers. The minister stressed the importance of increasing the percentage of guarantees and gradually improving the general financing conditions of SMEs.
The two agreements, a new re-strengthening contract between CERSA, under the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism and the Reciprocal Guarantee Societies (SGR) and promotion of the ICO SGR Guarantee Line, reinforce the reciprocal guarantee system, which aims at improve access to finance for SMEs and entrepreneurs and act in a complementary way to bank sources.
The SGRs provide guarantees for the loans requested by SMEs and entrepreneurs while CERSA partially covers the risk assumed by the SGRs.
Increased coverage of CERSA to SGR
The agreement signed today between the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism and the Spanish Confederation of Reciprocal Guarantee Societies (CESGAR) regulates the coverage by CERSA of the guarantee risks granted by the Reciprocal Guarantee Societies with the objective of promoting a additional activity growth:
- The commitments assumed by CERSA to revamp the sector's operations are increasing, from 50% in 2012 to more than 60% in 2013.
- The maximum size of the operations renewed by CERSA is increased up to 1 million euros.
- The focus of the increase in coverage has been especially in operations related to the internationalization of SMEs (revamped by CERSA by 75%) and working capital financing (which increases its coverage up to 60%, also including operations with installments from 12 months, when until now only operations covering more than 36 months were covered, and including commercial guarantees in addition to bank guarantees).
- The guarantee operations for entrepreneurs continue to be revamped by CERSA at 75%. Since 2003, CERSA has made a special support to this segment that has resulted in the granting of guarantees to about 25,000 entrepreneurs amounting to 2,500 million euros.
ICO SGR Warranty Line
The Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism, the Official Credit Institute (ICO), under the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, and CESGAR have also signed an agreement to promote the ICO SGR Guarantee Line, which combines the effort of the ICO and the sector of guarantees for supporting credit institutions in financing SMEs.
Through this Line, operations for an amount of up to 1 million euros may be requested for 100% guaranteed operations by an SGR and up to 60,000 euros for 50% guaranteed operations by an SGR. Both investment and liquidity are financed.
Guarantee system
The guarantee system is made up of CERSA and the 27 Reciprocal Guarantee Companies. In 2012, guarantees worth 985 million euros were granted under this system to 8,500 SMEs, 1,600 of which were new businesses and entrepreneurs. SGR is expected to grant guarantees in 2013 to more than 10,000 SMEs and entrepreneurs for more than 1,200 million euros, 21% more than in 2012.
To support the important activity of these companies, the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism has increased this year the budget of CERSA by 67% to 32 million euros. Likewise, Patrimonio del Estado and ICO signed an extraordinary capital increase of CERSA for 13 million euros.
In addition to the budget reinforcements for 2013, the European Investment Fund (EIF) also contributes with greater support through the agreement signed in December 2012 between CERSA and this institution that manages funds from the CIP program of the European Commission.
Within this framework of new reinforcements by the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism and the ICO to the guarantee system, there is a mutual commitment of CERSA and the Reciprocal Guarantee Societies, to continue increasing support for SME financing in 2013 .
