Illustrative stock photo (source: Sme)
The offering of so-called anti-corona loans is very slow, business owners say. The volume of loans is also far from what the government has promised, they complain.
The loans are available within the guarantee programme that brings together commercial banks with the Slovak Investment Holding (SIH) state company that offers a state guarantee, the economic daily Index reported.
Economy Minister Richard Sulík claims that the guarantee programme for SIH has been assigned €338 million.
With the so-called lever effect, banks may offer loans for small and medium companies at 2.5-times the sum, so €845 million.
The overall guarantee package has only amounted to €38 million by now.
Seven banks are participating in the programme: Slovenská sporiteľňa, ČSOB, VÚB, OTP bank, Oberbank, UniCredit Bank, BKS Bank. Tatra Banka is expected to join soon.
Processes should be faster
The loans are financed from European Structural Funds, which requires several European and national laws to be observed in the process. That may partly explain the surrounding bureaucracy and the slow pace of the process.
