Fondo Emergenza Imprese Sicilia (FEIS)

The Sicilian Enterprise Emergency Fund is the result of a joint initiative between the Sicilian Region and the European Investment Bank (EIB) to support regional economic recovery following the Covid-19 emergency. It is designed to help improve the financial structure of Sicilian SMEs affected by the crisis by facilitating access to long-term loans on favourable terms.

The Fund's objective is to support Sicilian businesses by granting loans, including interest-free loans, within the limits of the "Temporary framework for State aid measures to support the economy in the current COVID-19 emergency" approved by the European Commission. The Fondo Emergenza Imprese Sicilia aims to support companies operating in all sectors, with a particular focus on activities in the tourism sector, to which 50% of the Fund's resources are allocated.
The Fund's resources can be used to finance working capital to support operating and management costs, investments and the refinancing of existing debt to support businesses, up to a minimum of EUR 500,000 and a maximum of EUR 5 million per individual company.

In less than two years of operation, the FEIS Fund has disbursed a total of almost EUR 40 million to 22 Sicilian SMEs, 11 of which operate in the tourism sector.
As part of the Fund's activities, Sinloc assisted the Iccrea Group in
- Verification of the eligibility of the applicant companies and the documentation submitted during the application phase,
- in the preliminary assessment of the economic and financial sustainability of the business plans submitted
- in the selection process of the companies that will have access to the resources
- in the reporting of documents during the disbursement phase
- in the preparation of the workflow of the first level controls