Ten banks will offer loans under the "Kogălniceanu card" program

The following lenders will offer loans for small and medium enterprises, as part of the "Cardul Kogălniceanu" ("The Kogălniceanu card") program: Alpha Bank, Banca Comercială Carpatica, Banca Transilvania, Bancpost, BRD Groupe Societe Generale, CEC Bank, Garanti Bank, OTP Bank România, Pro Credit Bank and Unicredit Ţiriac Bank, according to data from the AIPPIMM (ed. note: the Agency for the Implementation of Projects and Programs for Small and Medium Enterprises).

The representatives of the AIPMM have said that all of the ten banks that have expressed interest in implementing the "Cardul Kogălniceanu" program were selected.

"The selection was made by reviewing the tenders submitted by the lenders which expressed interest in implementing the program", the representatives of the AIPPIMM said.

Dumitru Nancu, the vice-president of the AIPMM, said that the first step for SMEs looking to access the loans is to submit their applications on the agency"s website, which will be available starting September 9th. This stage will be followed by the verification of the eligibility of the company, the notification of the bank and of the applicant, following which the company will be able to request the loan.

Dumitru Nancu expects about 4,000 companies to benefit from this program, this year, and the total number of companies using this program is expected to reach 30,000 by 2013.

The "Cardul Kogălniceanu" program will allow small and medium enterprise to take out loans of up to 125,000 lei a year. The National Fund for the Guarantee of SME Loans (FNGCIMM) will guarantee, on behalf and on account of the state, the loans taken out by the small and medium enterprises. The collateral of the state will cover a maximum of 80% of the amount of the loan, excluding interest, commissions and other fees owed to the lender, but will not exceed 100,000 lei. Interest will subsidized up to 70%, within the limit of 6.5% a year.

The budget allocated for this program for 2011 amounts to 24 million lei for subsidizing interest and 400 million lei for guaranteeing the loans.

Alpha Bank will offer loans under the "Cardul Kogălniceanu" program with an interest rate calculated based on the 1-month Robor index plus a 4% margin, of which 70% will be subsidized by the state, according to a press release by the bank. Furthermore, the lender will levy a fee of 1% of the amount of the loan. Current accounts opened with Alpha Bank will see their commissions discounted by up to 50%, based on turnover.