Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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96. To ask the Minister for Finance his views on the performance of the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland; the amount of lending it has supported to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43394/15]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland (SBCI) was incorporated in September 2014 and since then the SBCI has made considerable progress in building relations with lending partners and in constructing the complex operational capability required to bring products to market. These include establishing operational capability with funders and lending partners, building internal systems and business processes and establishing a team to safely and effectively manage the funding provided on behalf of the State.

The Government's aim for the SBCI is to enhance the range and profile of SME finance providers in Ireland.  The SBCI is achieving this by working with existing and new providers to develop specific funding products and by supporting new entrants to the SME lending market through allocating funding to a number of non-bank SME finance providers.  The SBCI is also pursuing its objective of driving competition within the SME funding market through the provision of funding to a broad range of potential lending partners.

As the Deputy will be aware, the SBCI commenced lending on the 9 March 2015 through both Bank of Ireland and AIB. In addition to these two original lending partners the SBCI has recently signed on lending agreements with two non-bank lenders, Finance Ireland and Merrion Fleet Management.

Up to 30 September 2015, some €110m in SME loans were approved and drawn down by c.3200 SMEs.  The loans have been taken up by Irish SMEs for a variety of purposes and across a range of sectors in the economy. The SBCI has continued to see a strong take up of its loans with the pace of drawdown in the six months sustained since then.

At present, the SBCI is actively engaged with other potential lending partners in regards to their operational capability with the ambition to become SBCI lending partners during 2015 thereby providing Irish SMEs with greater choice in securing the most appropriate funding for their business needs.  The SBCI is also actively developing and marketing its brand and awareness of its products with SMEs and their representative organisations and advisers.