A fifth of Swiss SMEs have taken out Covid-19 loans guaranteed by the Confederation to ensure their liquidity. A total of 16.8 billion francs were paid out. In 845 cases, checks were carried out on suspicion of abuse.
According to data updated Thursday by the State Secretariat for the Economy (Seco), and revealed by some media, about 42% of the funds available have been used. A total of 136,112 small and medium-sized enterprises received loans.
In total, 13.8 billion francs were allocated in the loan category (for a maximum amount of 500,000 francs): 34,983 SMEs received an average of 103,000 francs each. In the Cov-19 Plus Credits category – a credit line of up to 20 million – 1,129 companies applied and were granted an average of 2.7 million.
Zurich and Vaud first recipients
In detail, 17.1% of the credits went to SMEs in the canton of Zurich and 10.8% in the canton of Vaud. They are followed by Ticino (9.3%), Bern (9%), Geneva (7.7%) and Aargau (5.8%). The orders of magnitude are similar in terms of volume of loans.
The largest number of loans were granted by Raiffeisen (18.2%) and UBS (17.9%). PostFinance (12%) and Credit Suisse (11.3%) follow. In 167 cases, the banks made use of the Confederation guarantee. The corresponding losses amount to 13.7 million francs, for an average amount of about 85,000 francs per case.
Trading companies and garages requested the highest volume of loans (24.6%), followed by manufacturing industry (15.2%), construction (13%) and hotels and restaurants ( 9.5%).
The biggest wave of requests came in the first eight days after March 26. According to a Seco chart, an average of 10,000 credit agreements were signed every day. The daily record (11,750) dates back to March 28. From the second week of April, the curve flattened considerably.
Few cases of abuse
Checks were carried out in 845 cases for suspected abuse. But Seco only opened proceedings in 48 cases where these suspicions were founded.
Most of the proceedings (17) were initiated for fear that the funds had been used for general purposes or for replacement investments. In eight cases, Seco suspected multiple claims and in seven cases incorrect sales data. Seven other proceedings were opened for the use of dividends or for refinancing.
The low number of abuses corresponds to the conclusions of the Federal Audit Office in a representative analysis published at the end of June. While there are suspicions of abuse, the irregularities are not, however, a “mass phenomenon”, he noted.
Survey in the canton of Vaud
In the canton of Vaud, however, the Public Prosecutor’s Office opened an investigation at the end of May for a major case of suspected Covid-19 credit scam. It concerns a total of 3.5 million francs, of which at least 1.5 million would have been transferred abroad. Much of this sum has since been repatriated to Switzerland.
According to La Liberté, which quoted on Friday the Vaud prosecutor Anton Rüsch, of the economic crime division of the Central Public Prosecutor’s Office, the latter was seized of 61 denunciations in connection with alleged fraud in coronavirus credits, for a total amount of more than 12 million of francs. More than 4 million were kidnapped, he said.
The deadline for submitting Covid-19 transitional credits expired on July 31. Surety requests for start-ups are open until August 31. In total, the Confederation made a maximum of CHF 40 billion available for its surety program.
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