On 24 February Bank Millennium and Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego will sign an agreement regarding release of a new collateral instrument under the “Innovative Economy” Operational Programme (PO IG). The new instrument will be guarantees extended to companies from the SME sector starting from 11 March 2016.   

Guarantee for innovation is a unique type of “de minimis” guarantee, which has been available from Bank Millennium since close to three years ago. The new guarantees, granted from the special Guarantee Fund created by BGK, are more generous for customers. Although they secure even 60% of loan amount, they remain free of charge.

Guarantees for innovations – benefits:

• High guarantee amount – up to as much as 60% of loan amount (maximum of PLN 3.5 million).
• Long tenor – up to 24 months in case of working capital loans or up to 96 months for investment loans.
• 0% fee for the guarantee – even if the tenor is many years
• Simple procedure – activities involved with obtaining the loan and guarantee are handled all in one place, directly in Bank Millennium.

– Joining the programme we will continue to apply the well-established standards of processing loans with guarantees. This is part of long-term strategy of the bank, which for years now has been supporting Polish enterprise and creates financing opportunities also for those customers who may have more difficult access to loans. I am referring to companies, which due to the nature of the business do not have assets sufficient to secure repayment of the financing. Also the nature of the new guarantee is important for us. We ourselves are an organisation, which seeks opportunities to take advantage of development of new technology in our business. This is why we are proud to support customers who build a new quality of their sector with their innovation.  – Agnieszka Kucharska, Head of Corporate Banking Credit products and Process Team explained.

The requirements to be met to get a new guarantee are very simple. Apart from submitting documents, which are standard for a “de minimis” guarantee it is sufficient to present one additional document, specifically a form confirming fulfilment of one of seven essential requirements and mentioning documents confirming this fact. Examples of criteria” “the company is located and is operating in a technology park” or “during the last three years the company has had revenue growth of 10% annually on average”.