Commercial banks have at their disposal now over BGN 71 million under the credit lines of the Bulgarian Development Bank (BDB) to negotiate new loans, according to data as at 31 March 2010. BGN 39 million of these are earmarked for current and investment funding of small and medium-sized enterprises, and the remaining BGN 32 million – for special purpose funding of agricultural producers.
Early in March 2009, BDB granted a financial resource of BGN 455 million to the commercial banks as revolving loans for a term of 5 to 10 years. The loans negotiated by the credit institutions with final borrowers shall be minimum 95% from the credit line granted by BDB.
From the beginning of the year until to-day, over 500 loans were repaid, 428 of which were loans under the financial assistance program for agricultural producers.
The maximum loan amount for current and investment crediting of SMEs is up to BGN 2 million with fixed interest rate ceiling up to 8%. The amount of the loans under the credit line for agricultural producers can be up to a maximum of BGN 500 thousand with a fixed interest rate of up to 7.5%.
