The government is seeking a “reformulation” of the Official Credit Institute (ICO) with the idea that it focuses on SMEs and that they access financing, after detecting that they do not tend to go into debt, as is the case in other European countries. .
Spain has a fabric made up mainly of SMEs, they represent more than 90% of companies and they come up against a sort of glass ceiling when they reach a certain size in their balance sheets which causes them to stagnate due to lack of access to financing. banking.
This was diagnosed by the Director General of Economic Policy of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Business, Víctor Ausín, during his participation in the “XXVII National Congress of Family Business” which took place held in Santander.
As part of a panel discussion on the future of Spain and the measures needed for a better country, Ausín highlighted that Spain is the European country with the fewest rated SMEs, which demonstrates a disconnect between non-bank financing and medium-sized SMEs. .
“We have a huge army of micro-SMEs who do not have access to banks”
“We have a huge army of micro-SMEs that do not have access to banks, not because the banks are bad, far from it, but many boast of not having debt”, contrasting with those of the rest of Europe, which tend to use leverage to finance their investments.
Faced with this problem, the “idea” of the “reformulation” of the ICO is “that it has a force more focused on SMEs, to make them grow and avoid the market failures that exist in terms of financing” , according to Ausín.
Financing linked to the recovery plan
Since the ICO they have added Servimedia that work is being carried out in this direction once the emergencies linked to the covid crisis and the war in Ukraine have been resolved. Now the ICO is focused on financing linked to the recovery plan and it is expected that next week banks will start marketing the ICO Business and Entrepreneur line, endowed with 8.150 million to support the growth and resilience of businesses, competitiveness and digitalization, particularly of SMEs. Thanks to the amendment to the recovery plan, the ICO will channel a total of 40,000 million euros in loans.
The organization explains on its website that one of its functions is to act as a national promotional bank, with a “particular emphasis” on the financing of SMEs and the self-employed, with its intermediation lines, with direct financing products and through its venture capital manager. , Axis.
Of its loan portfolio, as of June 30 of this year, 28% corresponds to financing for SMEs and other mediation lines in Spain and 8% to SMEs abroad. He thus emphasizes that he is “a pioneer in financing sectors with limited access to private financing”, citing SMEs.
Indeed, in its 2022-2027 strategic plan, the ICO explains that one of its action plans is to strengthen the ICO’s mediation lines and adapt them to the needs of SMEs and independents, as well as to encourage the diversification of their financing. channels.
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, announced on October 3 during a conference on SMEs and the recovery plan, 4.5 billion euros in subsidies and 50 billion euros in loans from the plan for these companies. He specified that 1.380 million will come from subsidies from Red.es, 3.000 million from Perte, 630 million from guarantees from Cersa, 2.4 billion from the Social Impact Fund and the Cofides Fund from Cofides, more than 30.000 million from the green ICO lines and ICO businesses and entrepreneurs and 16.4 billion from the State Corporation for Technological Transformation (SETT).
“We have dedicated more than a third of the recovery plan to SMEs: two euros out of five of the calls resolved by the plan reach them directly,” said Sánchez, emphasizing that “one small and medium-sized business in five is already a direct beneficiary “of the recovery plan, which represents more than half a million businesses”.
Of the 42.612 million euros that have been resolved by the recovery plan by all public administrations, more than 16.8 billion euros (39.5%) have an SME as direct beneficiary, according to the latest data from 31 august.
