All €150m of the SBCI Agriculture Cashflow Support Loan Scheme has been exhausted in just five weeks. Farmers applied for the 2.95% low-interest loans at a staggering rate of more than €4.2m per day, with all three banks – Bank of Ireland, AIB and Ulster Bank – confirming that their funds have been over-subscribed in the past week.
All €150m of the SBCI Agriculture Cashflow Support Loan Scheme has been exhausted in just five weeks.
Farmers applied for the 2.95% low-interest loans at a staggering rate of more than €4.2m per day, with all three banks – Bank of Ireland, AIB and Ulster Bank – confirming that their funds have been over-subscribed in the past week.
Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed has ruled out any hope of a second tranche of funding for farmers who were not fast enough to avail of the €150m fund.
The €150m fund included a €25m allocation from the Department of Agriculture, of which €11m came from the EU’s ‘‘exceptional adjustment aid for milk and other livestock farmers’’.
This element of the scheme cannot be repeated, a Department of Agriculture spokesman told the Irish Farmers Journal.
“It was this exceptional aid package which facilitated the scheme from an EU State Aid perspective, and additional funding is not possible under this particular arrangement,” the spokesman said. “The loans to non-livestock farmers, eg tillage, are made possible under ‘de minimis’ State Aid rules.”
“The minister is pleased at the very positive reaction by farmers to the loan scheme, which has proved that significant demand exists for low cost flexible finance. He hopes that the commercial banks will respond positively to this demand by reducing interest rates and providing more flexible terms for cashflow loans in the future,” he added.
IFA farm business chair Martin Stapleton called on SBCI to build on the success of this loan and put in place additional funds over the coming months for lower-cost loans for both working capital and longer-term investment.
ICMSA president John Comer said the massive demand for low-cost loans demonstrated vividly the extent of the funding crisis on farms and highlighted the consistent underestimate of the financial challenges faced by dairy farmers due to low milk prices in late 2015 and 2016.
Funding: €65mExhausted: 2 MarchWhat the bank said: From Thursday 2 March, all applications for loans under the scheme can now only be accepted on a provisional basis, contingent on any residual availability within the scheme which may emerge over the next number of weeks. If and when residual funding availability within the Scheme is confirmed, provisional applications will then be processed on a ‘first come first served’ basis.Funding: €60mExhausted: 3 MarchWhat the bank said: The fund is now fully subscribed and, as a result, the SBCI Agriculture Cashflow Support Loan offer is no longer available for new applications. AIB will honour all applications, subject to them meeting normal lending requirements and the specific scheme eligibility criteria, received prior to the scheme closing.
Funding: €25mExhausted: 7 MarchWhat the bank said: The fund has been exhausted. New applications for loans under the scheme will be provisionally accepted and placed on a waiting list, in the event of any residual funding becoming available. Read more
Coming, going, gone - where did all the low-cost loans go?
Full coverage: Agriculture Cashflow Support Loan Scheme
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