Five More Commercial Banks Joined the SIH Anti-Corona Guarantee 2 Scheme

Five More Commercial Banks Joined the SIH Anti-Corona Guarantee 2 Scheme

17.07.2020

Bratislava, July 17, 2020 – Over the past week, the Slovak Investment Holding (SIH) reached an agreement with five more commercial banks, which will from now on be able to use the SIH Anti-Corona Guarantee 2 to help their clients in the form of providing state-guaranteed, favourable-terms loans to overcome their problems related to the current COVID-19 pandemic. Joining the guarantee scheme is ČSOB, BKS Bank, OTP Banka, SZRB and UniCredit Bank.

“We believe that the participation of more banks in our guarantee scheme will help improve the financial condition, liquidity and cash flow of a broad spectrum of Slovak firms, preserve employment and overcome these difficult times caused by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Peter Dittrich, SIH Executive Board Vice-Chairman and Investments Director.

“Supporting domestic economy with favourable-terms loans or guarantees for small and medium businesses is the SZRB’s principal goal even in the ‘time of peace’, so it is more than natural that our bank is using every new possibility to intensify this support in the time of hopefully receding pandemic. Therefore, this assistance programme in cooperation with the SIH is another very effective channel that will – on top of our own standard products – allow SZRB to provide further assistance even simpler and faster,” seconded Igor Barát, SZRB Executive Board Vice-Chairman and Deputy General Manager.

“We assume that our active participation in new guarantee programmes will benefit our corporate clients. Thanks to this step, we are expanding our portfolio of favourable-term loans, which already ranks among the broadest in Slovakia,” commented Miroslav Štrokendl, Executive Board Member and Director of UniCredit Bank Czech Republic and Slovakia, upon signing the agreement.

“In these critical times, BKS Bank as a small bank that specializes in financing corporate clients deems it extremely important to extend its product mix to include these guaranteed loans, not only for existing but also new clients of the bank,” added Peter Chovanec, Director of BKS Bank AG, Branch of Foreign Bank in Slovakia.

“OTP Banka welcomes every instrument that allows it to help its clients overcome this period, which must be difficult for business. During hard times, it is important to be able to rely on one’s partners because there is no functioning business without genuine trust,” concluded Zita Zemková, General Manager and Executive Board Chairwoman of OTP Banka Slovensko, upon signing the agreement.

 

SIH Anti-Corona Guarantee 2

The new financial instrument is supposed to facilitate the provision of bridge loans with a 12-month deferment period on principal and interest. The maximum amount of provided loans with maturity of two to six years is €2 million per loan. The maximum limit on interest rates shall be at 3.9% p.a. for microbusinesses and at 1.9% p.a. for other businesses. Applicable to each loan is a guarantee fee whose amount shall depend on the loan’s maturity; however, the fee shall be remitted if the business preserves employment at the pre-crisis level. The beneficiary businesses will be able to use the loaned funds to finance their operating as well as investment costs.