|
EBRD provides first Rural Facility in Romania
Facility to help promote private-sector growth
Through its first rural facility in Romania, the EBRD is lending Casa de
Economii si Consemnatiuni SA (CEC), the oldest commercial bank in Romania, €10
million to promote private-sector growth in rural areas, including the
development of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises lending across the
country.
The funding for the Romanian savings bank, which comes under the rural
sub-window of the EU/EBRD SME Finance Facility, will be used to finance loans
to farms and small enterprises for amounts of up to €125,000 in rural areas of
Romania. The loan will be complemented by up to €1.5 million from the European
Commission, including a technical assistance package to support CEC’s small
business lending operation.
CEC will use the EBRD loan to strengthen its funding base to extend loans to
private businesses registered across Romania in cities not larger than 50,000
inhabitants. By doing so, SMEs will have more access to finance to expand
their businesses.
Hildegard Gacek, EBRD Director for Romania, said this loan is the first rural
financing arranged by the EBRD in Romania. Channelling the financing through
CEC which has such a strong regional presence and rural coverage will have a
wide impact in helping local enterprises become more competitive through
improved access to financing, said Ms Gacek.
Donato Chiarini, Head of the Delegation of the European Commission to Romania,
said that the facility will help Romania’s rural private businesses and will
contribute to the growth of a fully developed market economy across the
territory. The Commission will continue to support such initiatives in
Romania, said Mr. Chiarini.
Established in 1864, CEC reaches out to a broad variety of clients throughout
Romania, ranging from Romanian individuals, to entrepreneurs, SMEs and larger
corporate companies. CEC is amongst the largest commercial banks of Romania,
with a new strategy dedicated to SMEs.
Romania’s accession to the EU has brought new challenges for the Romanian
banking sector, said Radu Gratian Ghetea, President of CEC. The bank has
developed a very fruitful co-operation with the EBRD over the last years and
our strategy is to further build on this. The technical assistance provided by
the EU under the EU/EBD SME Facility has been instrumental in know-how
transfer to our employees in areas like credit analysis, marketing and sales,
as well as credit scoring. This loan will consolidate our position in the SME
lending sector with a distinct focus on clients registered in the rural areas
of Romania to make better use of our extended branch network with the widest
rural coverage within the Romanian banking sector, said Mr Ghetea.
The EU/EBRD SME Finance Facility, a joint programme of the European Commission
and the EBRD, supports the development and growth of entrepreneurs by
facilitating their access to finance. Under this regional project covering 11
countries, EBRD has committed €1,111.5 million to date since the launch of the
Facility in 1999, supported by EC grant funding from the Phare programme of
€148.3 million.
The Phare programme is the main channel for the EU’s financial and technical
cooperation with accession countries. For further information, see:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/enlargement.
The EBRD is one of the largest investors in Romania, having committed more
than €3.47 billion in over 194 projects.
|
