The ICO, a State owned bank attached to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Competitiveness, has improved credit spreads to allow small- and medium-sized businesses and self-employed workers to finally get access to loans. The euro amount of loans granted had fallen from 8 billion to 4.384 billion euros per semester since the beginning of the year.
The trend was reversed in July by the ICO. At the beginning of the financial crisis, banks did not have sufficient cash to grant loans -- even if companies that wanted the loans had healthy balance sheets. Now the situation has inverted.
None of the measures to improve the availability of credit have worked as planned until now, and even these latest changes will not have a major impact until the financial sector has been cleaned up fully.