CaixaBank and Barcelona's Chamber of Commerce to offer €3 billion in loans for member companies

Barcelona (ACN).- In a situation of difficult access to credit by Catalan and Spanish companies, Barcelona’s Chamber of Commerce and the main Spanish bank – which is based in the Catalan capital – have agreed to open a new credit line for private companies and independent workers affiliated to the Chamber. In January 2012 they created the first fund with €2 billion. Now, a total of €3 billion have been put at the members’ disposal, of which €1 billion will be for internationalisation projects. CaixaBank’s President, Isidre Fainé, and the President of the Chamber, Miquel Valls, signed the new agreement on Wednesday. The small, medium-sized and large companies, as well as independent workers, who are members of the so-called ‘Club Cambra’ of the Chamber will have access to this new credit line.

The new fund is a continuation of the credit line opened in January 2012, which had €2 billion in funds and was empty by October. Back then, 2,447 enterprises, most of them micro- and small companies, obtained a loan, according to a press note jointly released by CaixaBank and Barcelona’s Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday.

Regarding the former credit fund, 60% of the operations involved an amount below €100,000. In addition, 54% of the operations were with new CaixaBank clients. Considering the type of operation;, 29% were credits, 34% risk lines, 16% loans, 9% renting operations and 3% guarantees.

At Wednesday’s signing, CaixaBank’s President, Isidre Fainé stated that “the push for exporting will be essential for recovering from the economic crisis”. Therefore, according to him, “brave” companies are needed, “with innovation and anticipation capacities, which should be able to look for and benefit from the opportunities the current situation offers”.

Besides having enlarged the previous amount of the fund by 50%, with the new agreement ‘la Caixa’ – which owns CaixaBank – will become an honorary institutional member of Barcelona’s Chamber of Commerce. This means that the 25,000 members of the Chamber’s ‘Club Cambra’ should have easier access to obtain funds to finance their business projects. The ‘Club Cambra’ is the business platform of Barcelona’s Chamber, which has been joined by companies from the other eight chambers of commerce which already exist in Catalonia.