More than 57,800 small and medium-sized enterprises are enrolled in the SME Invest program, which totals about 726,200 jobs, while so far about 5,000 cases have been approved by banks, Dumitru Nancu, director general of the SMEs National Credit Guarantee Fund (FNGCIMM), said on Tuesday.

“We have received 57,807 files, and the banks have processed about 5,000 of them, which are approved. It is the first and only program that has taken effect within a week of their approval. It is clear that we cannot go beyond the internal rules. There are 22 banks. Each bank has its own rule. Of course, that own rule should not jump from primary and secondary legislation under the SME Invest program. Towards the end of the week, banks have a week since they started evaluating,” Dumitru Nancu said, as quoted by Agerpres.

“We estimate that by the end of this week we will have a significant number of approvals. Basically a bank assessment doesn’t take longer than five days. So somewhere at the end of the month we will go through more than half of the approved applications. Banks have automated their applications. At the end of the month we will see the direct effects. We want to see how much has been subscribed from the ceiling. Starting with June 1, we will make either reallocations, or impose additional ceilings,” added the general director of FNGCIMM.