28.09.2018 The National Guarantee Fund celebrates its 10th anniversary

National Guarantee Fund, part of Bulgarian Development Bank Group, celebrated its 10th anniversary. The Fund’s mission is to facilitate the access to financing and favourable lending conditions for SMEs. The anniversary celebration brought together colleagues and partners of the fund. "The National Guarantee Fund is a natural financial intermediary for all EU guarantee instruments in support of small and medium-sized businesses. NGF provided an additional EUR 40 million financial support for businesses in Bulgaria, through its successful partnership with the European Investment Fund, and in particular under the COSME program” said Angel Djalazov, Executive Director of the NGF.
He shared his confidence that the topic of the use of financial instruments will become even more relevant, and that the guarantee institutions’ role of a partner to commercial and business banks will become even more tangible.
Since NGF’s establishment, over 8 000 Bulgarian companies with over 120 000 employees in total have been supported - mostly in the trade, agriculture and manufacturing sectors. Almost 1 000 of the supported companies are start-ups. During this period, the Fund has implemented 9 guarantee programs in partnership with 18 commercial banks where the guaranteed loan volume exceeds BGN 2 billion.
Among the guests of the anniversary celebration were executives of commercial banks, partners of NFG under several guarantee programs, as well as foreign experts from the European Association of Guarantee Institutions (AECM), where the Fund is a full member since 2009. This year, NGF hosted the spring training session of AECM in Sofia and brought together 27 guarantee institutions from 17 countries.
According to the Association's data, in 2016 the National Guarantee Fund was the European leader in terms of business growth. In 2017 the Fund reported the largest volume of issued guarantees since its establishment – namely BGN 223 million guarantees and over BGN 500 million guaranteed loans