Business environment to have simplified access to loans from financial institutions in Moldova

Chisinau, 19 October /MOLDPRES/ - The small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) will be able to easier access loans from financial institutions. The cabinet today established a new mechanism of providing financial guarantees and namely the credit portfolio guarantees, the government’s communication and protocol department has reported.      

The new regulation, approved by the cabinet of ministers today, will give possibility to guarantee including the loans provided by the Non-Bank Crediting Organizations (OCN). The financial guarantees are provided by the Organization for Entrepreneurship Development (ODA) through the Credits Guarantee Fund.  

The capitalization of the Guarantee Fund will also increase, to that the latter will ensure the facilitation of the access to financing for at least 900 SMEs or twice as much against the current capacity. Other benefits forecast of the Fund are:  

- Providing of additional financial guarantees worth at least one billion lei;

- Facilitating SMEs’ accession to additional crediting resources of at least 2 billion lei;

- Carrying out of investment projects by SMEs worth at least 4 billion lei;

- Maintaining of the present jobs and the creation of new jobs;

- Increase in the share of active financial guarantees in the overall amount of loans provided to the SMEs’ sector up to at least 5 per cent.  

Presently, the state provides financial guarantees for the loans contracted by SMEs through the Credits Guarantee Fund (FGC), managed by ODA. FGC has the task to facilitate the access to financing for the SMEs which do not have enough pledge, through the issuance of financial guarantees in favour of commercial banks.    

Currently, FGC makes available to banks 6 guarantee products, which cover up to 80 per cent of the loan requested and the value of guarantee varies from 500,000 lei for companies beginners up to 7 million lei for exporting companies. Also, given the energy crises and inflation pressures, in 2022, ODA removed the guarantee commission (0.5 per cent) for all guarantee products and increased the maximal share of guarantee up to 80 per cent.  

In 2021, ODA issued 468 financial guarantees worth 387.8 million lei, which facilitated the disbursement of loans worth 992.8 million lei and generated the making of investments worth over 1.13 billion lei into the national economy.  

Note: The portfolio guarantee is a financial commitment signed by the Guarantor (ODA) in the conditions of a cooperation contract signed with a Creditor (commercial bank or OCN), which shares the credit risk related to an eligible credit portfolio, without the need of approval of each transaction by the Guarantor.  

Photo: Government