'First Home 3' guarantee cap is being spent quickly

The 200 million-euro guarantee cap set by the Government for the 'First Home 3' scheme is being spent quickly, with BCR and BRD, the banks with the highest amounts allocated as part of the scheme reporting that they have over 1,200 applications under processing, which means there could be over 2,000 applications being processed on the overall market, but the Loan Guarantee Fund for SMEs has so far approved around 650 applications.

The scheme became operational at the beginning of February, when the guarantee caps were allocated. The two players have a cumulated guarantee cap of around 100 million euros, i.e. half the total amount available.

BRD, the second-biggest local bank in terms of assets, yesterday announced it was analysing 500 'First Home' applications. Considering that the average value of mortgage loans sold through this scheme is around 40,000 euros, it means the bank has already found customers for 20 million-euro guarantees, compared with the 32 million euros available.

BCR, the biggest local bank, had announced at the beginning of the week that it was reviewing 735 applications for "First Home" loans, worth 30 million euros. The bank has a 64 million-euro guarantee cap allocated.