Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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95. To ask the Minister for Finance the actions he is taking to increase the rate of credit lending to businesses via the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland; the level of take up from the fund by businesses at 31 December 2016; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2509/17]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland (SBCI) began lending in March 2015 and its purpose is to increase the availability of low cost, flexible funding to SMEs. The SBCI does not lend directly to SMEs, rather it channels its funds through lending partners, known as on-lenders. At present, the SBCI has eight on-lending partners, including both bank and non-bank finance providers.

The SBCI received initial funding of €800 million from EIB, KfW and the NPRF (now ISIF) to support its lending activity. It has since also received further long term funding from the NTMA and the Council of Europe Development Bank. The SBCI now has a funding capacity of over €1.2 billion to support Irish SMEs investing in and growing their businesses.  In December 2016, the SBCI signed a risk sharing agreement under the COSME programme with the European Investment Fund. This facility will be used to support the delivery of additional credit to the Irish market through SBCI guarantee products in 2017.

To the end of September 2016, over 10,600 SMEs, operating across all business and economic sectors of the Irish economy, have benefitted from €458 million of SBCI loans. There is a broad geographical spread of the SMEs supported with the majority of them based outside Dublin. I understand that the SBCI will make its lending figures to the end of December 2016 available in the coming weeks and these will be published on its website.

The level of lending to SMEs through the SBCI is ultimately driven by market demand. However, the SBCI is seeking new on-lenders to broaden its distribution capability and market coverage as well as encouraging competition in the SME Finance Market.