United Bulgarian Bank (UBB) was the first Bulgarian bank that started offering the COSME COVID-19 guarantee program, provided by the European Investment Fund. After the successful start of the program, United Bulgarian Bank (UBB) launched the InnovFin COVID-19 program with the financial support of the European Union, based on Financial Instruments under Horizon 2020 and the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), established under the Investment Plan for Europe.
JEREMIE Trade Financing COVID-19
Now the new guarantee program called JEREMIE Trade Financing COVID-19 (which stands for “Joint European Resources for Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises”) with the agreement between the bank and the European Investment Fund (EIF) will guarantee transactions for the financing of small and medium-sized enterprises (with a staff of up to 499 people) worth 170m euros. The program is entirely aimed at financing and supporting Bulgarian entrepreneurs, as its main goal is the development of small and medium enterprises.
The new program provides an opportunity for partial provision of bank guarantees provided by UBB, letters of credit, general limits for working capital and issuance of bank guarantees and/or letters of credit, working capital loans, including overdrafts and transactions on trade receivables (factoring) in EUR, BGN and US dollars granted until 31.03.2023 for a period of up to 60 months, but not later than 31.12.2025.
With JEREMIE Trade Financing COVID-19, UBB offers preferential pricing and lenient security requirements up to 50% of the reduced loan amount.
The program allows for the refinancing of up to 30% of the loan amount, and the transaction does not have to be secured by another financial instrument from the EIF. This makes the program different from the financial instruments currently offered by the European Investment Fund. The program parameters will be valid until March 31, 2023, and no formal documenting the impact of COVID-19 on applying companies is required.
“Through our partnership with the European Investment Fund, we continue to support small and medium-sized enterprises in Bulgaria in the unusual economic environment caused by COVID-19. In today’s context, we want to be part of the recovery process more than ever, and I am glad that this tool is another way to achieve our goal”– says Peter Andronov, CEO of United Bulgarian Bank.
Source: Bank’s Press Releases from 17.12.2020, 21.07.2020, 08.06.2020
