Small and medium enterprises in Romania can benefit from more funding via the European financing initiative JEREMIE- Joint European Resources for Micro to Medium Enterprises, for which the Romanian Government recently upped the local budget by some EUR 50 million.

Adding to the existing EUR 20 million budget, the JEREMIE funds will reach small and medium Romanian enterprises via several local banks as investment loans and work capital, with low interest and low guarantees. Adding to the JEREMIE pool, banks will also mirror the existing funding in the program, leading to a total budget of EUR 140 million for SMEs.

JEREMIE is a new way of using European funds to support SMEs. In Romania, it started with the guarantee facility via several local banks, and then created a risk capital instrument that financed the fund Catalyst Romania, which supports small and medium enterprises in the technology- media – telecom fields.

Via the JEREMIE agreement, two financial instruments have already been created, the guarantee facility implemented via the banks BCR, Raiffeisen Bank and UniCredit Ţiriac Bank, and a risk capital investment fund, 3TS Catalyst Romania.

Via the guarantee facilities, Romanian SMEs have taken 2,000 new loans worth some EUR 175 million so far. A third instrument, which will feature lower interest rates and taking over the lending risk, is currently under evaluation and application selection.

editor@romania-insider.com