Banca Transilvania, the largest supporter of Romanian agriculture, is simplifying APIA lending by accepting APIA certificates online and streamlining the approval process.

Banca Transilvania and Agency for Payments and Intervention in Agriculture have signed the agreement to finance agricultural subsidies, continuing their partnership this year as well. Under the program, the bank provides advance financing to farmers who receive area-based payments (SAPS 2020) and to beneficiaries under Measure 14 – Animal Welfare.

Farmers who need financing and receive APIA subsidies can bridge their needs until the subsidy is paid through the APIA loan. Banca Transilvania finances up to 85% of the amount shown on the APIA certificate. For example, if someone is to receive 22,000 lei in subsidies from APIA, the maximum loan amount is 18,700 lei, the annual percentage rate (APR) is 4.88%, and the total amount payable is 19,752 lei.

BT’s focus on agriculture

“Despite the challenges at this time, agriculture has a historic opportunity. Agriculture feeds Romania and, at the same time, it is a chance to restart the economy and drive Romania’s growth. We are closely watching everything that is happening, both regarding our specialist clients who applied for financing under the IMM Invest program as an opportunity to develop and consolidate, and the severe effects of drought in certain regions of the country.” – says Sorin Ignat, Agribusiness Director, Banca Transilvania.

Banca Transilvania’s priorities for Romanian agriculture are being redefined around the following four areas:

• encouraging the pandemic-driven trend of people choosing Romanian products;
• increasing synergy among local producers, retailers and customers;
• reducing Romania’s dependence on food imports;
• supporting entrepreneurial farmers to move increasingly toward technology monitoring, with equipment and machinery doing the work.

What BT is preparing in online banking for agribusiness in the period ahead:

• The option to apply online for the APIA loan;
• The virtual assistant (chatbot) Raul de la BT will also respond to questions about APIA loans;
• Factoring for APIA certificates.

Last year, Banca Transilvania granted almost 4,500 loans worth 2 billion lei, and reached 31,000 agribusiness clients. BT’s figures show rising client interest in working capital loans (+39% in the number of new loans and 5% by value) and APIA loans (22% in the number of new loans and 65% by value). In 2019, the bank was best in class for discounting APIA certificates, with over 2,500 loans for legal entities, totaling more than 440 million lei.