Bank of Ireland reports strong demand for € 65 million Agriculture Cashflow Support Loan Scheme

LAST week Bank of Ireland opened its application process for the new Agriculture Cashflow Support Loan Scheme. The new scheme is subsidised and guaranteed by the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland ( SBCI) in partnership with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the European Investment Fund. SPEAKING about the scheme, John Fitzgerald Head of Agriculture, Bank of Ireland, said, “Bank of Ireland is consistently supplying over 50% of all new lending to the agriculture sector in recent years. We support our farming customers with loans approved for working capital, land purchase and farm development and we have secured € 65m of the scheme. Our aim is to support customers to meet their individual cashflow needs where typically the loan will be matched to the life of assets funded. The launch of the Cashflow Support Loan Scheme is an important mechanism to support this aim as we will now make funds available at a discounted rate of 2.95% and we will be working very closely with our customers to fund their working capital requirements.” JOANN Hosey, Head of Bank of Ireland in County , Sligo, Roscommon added, “In Roscommon Sligo Bank of Ireland has a strong presence with three branches throughout the county. We are supporting the agriculture sector which is of significant importance to the Irish economy and the life- blood of rural communities. Underpinning this importance, the bank’s involvement in the scheme will support the on- going development of the agriculture sector which is of real relevance to farmers experiencing short term financial pressure due to price and income volatility. This fund is open now and is available until 30th September, 2017”, Hosey confirmed. GIVING his assessment of how the scheme is going and with advice on how farmers can make the application process as easy and quick as possible John Fitzgerald said, “With an allocation of € 65 million, Bank of Ireland has the largest individual share of funds available. In the first week we are seeing very strong interest and demand for the scheme, with a wide variation in loan purposes. The main purposes include funding of trade credit, annual stocking loans and refinance of farm development projects which have been funded by cashflow in recent years. “HOWEVER a number of farmer customers have applied for ineligible loan purposes under the SBCI loan scheme. Typically these include land purchase, future farmyard development, breeding stock, machinery finance and repayment of existing farm loans. While these are amongst the loan purposes that are ineligible under the SBCI scheme, there are other funding options available to farmers from Bank of Ireland.” FOR further information on the Bank of Ireland – SBCI Agriculture Cashflow Support Loan scheme see www. bankofireland. com/ SBCI TO apply, call Bank of Ireland at 1890 365 222 ( Monday to Friday 8am to 8pm and Saturday from 10am to 2pm) or arrange a meeting with your local Bank of Ireland Business Adviser/ Business Manager.