Through the guarantee facility, UniCredit Bank will generate a loans portfolio of up to €300 million, with the possibility of increasing up to €450 million, with individual loans of maximum ​ €25 million and extended maturity of up to 15 years.

The agreement signed with the European Investment Bank is supported by the Ministry of Investments and European Projects, through the State aid and de minimis Scheme for facilitating access of enterprises to financing through guarantee instruments from the Fund of funds for digitization, climate action and other areas of interest, under Investment 2, measure 4 (Fund of Funds for digitization, climate action and other areas of interest) of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, hereinafter referred to as PNRR, Component 9 "Support for the Private Sector, Research, Development and Innovation" .

The objective of the aid measure is to facilitate the access of companies and municipalities to financing through the use of the capped portfolio guarantee instrument, which generates a difference between the reference interest at the market level and the interest charged to the company as a result of the reduction of the cost of risk and the cost of capital for the loans granted, the difference being an economic advantage offered to clients, in the form of state aid or de minimis aid.

"The mission assumed by UniCredit is to support communities to progress, which is what we are doing through this agreement signed with the European Investment Bank through which Romanian companies and small municipalities receive increased access to loans that benefit from the support of financial guarantee instruments. Thus, projects that consider the transition to green energy, increasing energy efficiency, production processes that respect the environment, digitization or sustainable transport, have the chance to be realized and improve the quality of life in our communities. Specifically, large companies and small municipalities that access the new facility with a guarantee percentage of up to 80%, benefit from a significant interest reduction depending on the characteristics of the loan, under the conditions of a guarantee commission of 0%", commented Raluca Popescu, Executive Vicepresident Corporates and Investment Banking at UniCredit Bank.