The line of ICO guarantees to guarantee the liquidity of the self-employed and companies is extended until December 2023

The Official State Gazette has published that a Code of Good Practices will be established to alleviate the rise in interest rates on mortgage loans on primary residences and to approve urgent measures to protect mortgage debtors without resources, the line of guarantees aimed at guaranteeing the liquidity of the self-employed and companies, regulated in the package of measures against the war in Ukraine through Royal Decree-Law 6/2022, is extended until 31 December 2023. (Second FD RDl 19/2022).

This line of guarantees, which has an allocation of 10 billion euros, was activated in May with a first tranche of 5 billion managed by the Official Credit Institute in collaboration with financial institutions. This new Royal Decree-Law changes the configuration of this allocation, dividing it into two compartments, one of 3.5 billion for SMEs and the self-employed and another of 1.5 billion for large companies, in order to guarantee access to financing for companies of all sizes.

The guarantees are intended to guarantee new financing operations granted by Financial Institutions, and may be requested until 1 December 2023 by self-employed individuals and companies that are not in default or in bankruptcy proceedings on the date of signing the operation, nor are they subject to sanctions by the European Union, nor are they subject to any guarantee execution process managed by the ICO at the time of requesting the guarantee.

The guarantee will guarantee up to 80% of new loans for operations requested with a maximum guaranteed amount of up to 2,000,000 euros in general, 250,000 euros for primary agricultural product companies and 300,000 euros for fishing and aquaculture, in one or more loan operations. In these cases, the guarantee issued will be valid for the term of the loan granted, with a maximum term of 10 years.

Above these thresholds, the maximum amount of total loans guaranteed per beneficiary will be set according to their average annual turnover or energy costs over the last 12 months, but in no case may it exceed €150 million. In these loans, the guarantee may guarantee up to 80% of the loan amount for SMEs and the self-employed and up to 70% for other companies. The duration of the guarantee will also coincide with the repayment period of the operation, which will be up to eight years.

All operations shall be subject, at the request of the debtor, to an initial grace period of 12 months on the principal amount and financial institutions shall:

• Keep its customers’ working capital lines open until 31 December 2023.
• Apply best banking practices for the benefit of its customers, and
• Do not make the approval of loans conditional on the customer contracting any other service or product.

Finally, please also remember that, for operations of more than 50 million euros, the beneficiary undertakes not to distribute dividends during the life of the operation.

If you have any doubts regarding this issue, please do not hesitate to contact us, by telephone to Carles Monfort Codina or by e-mail to cmc@btsasociados.com, we will be delighted to help you.