- The ICO Lines are 25 years old, during which they have supported 178,000 million euros for self-employed and SMEs
- The ICO granted loans amounting to 4,594 million in 2017, distributed in more than 79,900 operations
The Official Credit Institute (ICO) has signed today the collaboration protocols with 10 financial entities for the concession of the ICO 2018 Lines. The firm has been attended by the Secretary of State for Economy and Business Support, Irene Garrido; the president of the ICO, Pablo Zalba; and representatives of the ten most active financial entities in the granting of ICO loans during the past year: Banco Popular (Grupo Santander), CaixaBank, Santander, Bankinter, Bankia, Sabadell, Abanca, BBVA, Microbank and Ibercaja.
The ICO granted financing amounting to 4,594 million euros in 2017, distributed in more than 79,900 operations. These figures are at the same levels as the results obtained in 2016, the year in which, thanks to ICO financing, more than 300,000 jobs were created or maintained in Spain.
This year also marks the 25th anniversary of the launch of the first ICO Pyme Line in collaboration with financial institutions under the mediation model. Since then, the ICO Lines have granted 178,000 million euros through 3,100,000 operations to finance investment plans and the international activity of freelancers and companies.
Due to its countercyclical nature and once the economic recovery has been consolidated, the ICO focuses its strategy on offering Lines that provide added value to business financing and promote the exit of companies abroad.
In the regional distribution, Catalonia stands out, where 15.8% of the total financing has been granted, followed by Madrid with 15.3% and Andalusia, with 14.3%.
The ICO Lines are characterized by their high capillarity: more than 66.5% of the loans have been subscribed by microenterprises with less than 10 workers. The percentage rises to 92.7% if companies with less than 49 workers are taken as a reference. In addition, it highlights that most of the loans granted, approximately 53%, have been microcredits with an amount lower than 25,000 euros.
The catalog of ICO Lines for this year is again divided into two large blocks: Companies and Entrepreneurs and Internationalization, with the objective of covering the financing needs of freelancers and companies in any of their stages of development.
In addition, this catalog is complemented by other new products recently announced as the ICO-IDAE Line, which finances investments aimed at improving the energy efficiency of companies and the International Canal Line, which allows Spanish companies to apply for loans at local banks or international entities that are based in the countries where investment projects or export activity are developed.
The ICO continues to promote the development of long-term investment projects with its products and continues to work to support Spanish companies when they go abroad.
