Credit Guarantee Act 2012

Credit guarantee scheme.

5.— (1) The Minister may, with the consent of the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, make a scheme or schemes for the purposes of this Act.

(2) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1), a scheme under this section may make provision in relation to all or any of the following matters:

(a) the giving of information to the Minister for the purposes of the making of an agreement under section 4 ;

(b) the extent of the Minister’s liability to a participating lender in accordance with an agreement under section 4 in circumstances where the participating lender fails or refuses to comply with this Act or a scheme under this section;

(c) variation of the terms of an agreement under section 4 in circumstances where a participating lender fails or refuses to comply with this Act or a scheme under this section;

(d) the payment of the initial premium or annual premium under section 8 by instalments;

(e) the preparation and maintenance of records, books of account and such other documentation as may be specified in a scheme under this section by participating lenders;

(f) provision with regard to the giving of documents, information and reports by lenders to the Minister;

(g) the audit and examination of accounts of qualifying enterprises;

(h) requirements in relation to the transfer of any rights and liabilities under a loan agreement;

(i) such other matters as the Minister, after consultation with the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform considers necessary or expedient.

(3) A scheme under this section shall specify conditions (in this Act referred to as “applicable conditions”), with which a lender shall, for the purposes of the granting of approval under section 2 , comply, relating to—

(a) the policies and practices of the lender as respects—

(i) the lending of money generally,

(ii) the giving of loans to qualifying enterprises,

(iii) the recovery of moneys borrowed from the lender,

(iv) the provision by borrowers of security for moneys borrowed from the lender,

(b) the administration and management of the lender,

(c) the procedures in relation to the supervision of transactions entered into on the lender’s behalf by members of staff of the lender, and

(d) the proportion that moneys standing borrowed for the time being from the lender bears to the capital reserves of the lender,

declared in a credit guarantee scheme to be conditions with which a lender shall comply before an approval in respect of that lender may be given under this section.

(4) A scheme under this section shall specify—

(a) the class or classes of qualifying enterprise to which the scheme shall apply,

(b) the conditions that shall be complied with in relation to the entering into of a loan agreement by a participating lender with a qualifying enterprise,

(c) the class or classes of loan agreement to which the scheme shall apply,

(d) the purposes for which moneys borrowed pursuant to any such agreement may be applied, and

(e) the maximum amount or amounts that a participating lender may lend to a qualifying enterprise.