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The request for loans to banks to obtain financing guaranteed by the State is in some cases doubling the limit that the Government has placed on credit institutions through the Official Credit Institute (ICO).

Industry sources explain that in recent weeks have received a wave of demands for credit mostly self - employed and small businesses that need working capital to stay alive while his activity remains paralyzed by the alarm status.

All the banks consulted explain that they will reach today, or at the latest throughout this week, the quota established by the Executive. The tranche of credit released so far by the Government is 20,000 million euros, divided in half between large companies and, on the other hand, SMEs and the self-employed.

The plan establishes a guarantee percentage for each entity based on the market share it has in the business credit segment, so that the country's five largest banks have the capacity to place between 2,000 and 4,000 million euros , according to each entity.

The requests that the banks have received since last March 18 and that will be effective today double in some cases that fee. For this reason, from the sector and from the business employers themselves, such as CEOE and Cepyme, they urge the economic vice president Nadia Calviño to release a greater number of guarantees within the program of 100,000 million euros announced by the Executive in response to the coronavirus crisis. .

Banks also request a review of the distribution of credits since, after a first analysis, between 70% and 80% of the requested credit comes from small and medium-sized companies.

Two of the entities consulted detail that throughout today they will process joint loans for an amount greater than 5,000 million euros, covering all of their fees. In one of these, they add, they already have another 3,000 million in the fridge to go through the guarantee when the next tranche of credit opens.

From another of these banks they explain that, although their quota has been filled, the computer platform created by this platform will take days to process the huge number of requests that the banks are sending.

A priori, risk management remains in the hands of the entities, except for credits over 50 million euros, which will have to be evaluated before being granted by the public institute. However, the ICO reserves the right to carry out a subsequent audit of all the financing granted.

A controversial program

The guarantee plan announced by the Government has been immersed in several controversies before it was even launched on Monday.

On the one hand, the organizations of the self-employed and SMEs have criticized the slow start-up deadlines, 20 days after their announcement at a press conference by Calviño.

On the other, there have been several complaints by self-employed people through social networks protesting the high cost of credit demanded by entities or the attempt to cross-sell other financial products such as insurance.

The president of Cepyme, Gerardo Cuerva , warned today in an interview in EL MUNDO that credit does not flow as it should in a situation of economic crisis like the current one.

Sources from the Ministry of Economy explain that they will expand the guaranteed credit tranche when they have real proof that the 20,000 million have been exhausted and reserve the right to modify the current conditions. These establish public guarantees of 80% in loans to SMEs, 70% in new loans to large companies and 70% in renewals of current lines.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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  • CEOE
  • Nadia Calviño

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