Banca Transilvania is part of a new grant program, this time for HoReCa, providing non-repayable funding for SMEs in the hospitality industry: hotels, restaurants, guesthouses, travel agencies and event organizers.

Entrepreneurs can receive state aid — through the Ministry of Economy, Entrepreneurship and Tourism — of up to 20% of the drop in turnover in 2020 compared with 2019, capped at 800,000 euros. More than 25,000 BT clients are eligible for non-repayable funding under this program based on their business activity, according to CAEN codes.

The key new features compared with other schemes for entrepreneurs affected by the pandemic:

• Support for all: all eligible companies receive non-repayable aid, as this program does not use, unlike others, the first come, first served principle. Applicants submit a funding request for the amount they qualify for (20% of the decrease in turnover from 2019 to 2020), and if the allocated budget is lower than the total requested by beneficiaries, it will be shared proportionally among them. The total budget for HoReCa grants is 2.5 billion lei.
  
  
• Company-in-difficulty criterion: micro and small enterprises that were in difficulty as at 31 December 2019 are also eligible, provided they are not insolvent by the date the funding application is submitted.
  
  
• Mandatory documentation: the funding application must be accompanied by the Operating Licence/Classification Certificate/Tourism Licence, etc., and an accounting expert report or audit report certifying the calculation basis used to determine the grant amount. The report must be prepared by an accountant who is a CECAR member or an auditor who is a CAFR member and serves to certify the company’s revenues by CAEN code.
  
  
• Broader expense coverage: beneficiaries will be free to pay all expenses related to the eligible activity from these grants.

Steps to access the HoReCa grants:

• Obtain the accounting expert report or audit report;
• Access the grants platform and choose Banca Transilvania as partner bank;
• Fill in your identification details online;
• Applications are reviewed by the Ministry of Economy, Entrepreneurship and Tourism, and those that meet the requirements are approved. The grant agreement is then signed;
• Once the ministry transfers the grant funds to BT, the bank credits the company’s account.

What Banca Transilvania provides for entrepreneurs enrolling in the program:

• For BT clients, the bank will automatically open the grant sub-account after receiving the list of applicants from the Ministry of Economy, Entrepreneurship and Tourism;
• Businesses that choose BT but are not Banca Transilvania clients can open a current account online (NEOcont business). Companies automatically receive Internet & Mobile Banking. The bank will automatically open the grant sub-account as soon as it receives the list of applicants from the ministry;
• Zero fees for all transactions to/from the BT grant sub-account;
• Bridge loan with no collateral if the company needs funds before receiving the grant from the ministry.

Banca Transilvania is the main bank in the Competitiveness Operational Programme 2014–2020, launched last year to support entrepreneurs and the economy, which is still ongoing. Through Measure 1 (funding of 2,000 euros) and Measure 2 (funding of up to 150,000 euros), BT supports more than 27,000 companies, with 53% of the companies enrolled in the program choosing BT as partner bank. Banca Transilvania has made more than 15,000 payments to beneficiaries, amounting to more than 1.4 billion lei.