DEVELOPMENT BANKING
ICC & ACC functions
04 NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT BANKING — ICC & ACC
The proposal is to recreate the functions historically associated with the Industrial Credit Company (ICC) and Agricultural Credit Corporation (ACC), focused on productive finance for Irish businesses and agriculture.
THE PROPOSAL
- Establish a modern national development-finance institution or institutions drawing on the historical ICC and ACC models.
- Provide term lending, working-capital facilities, equipment finance and development finance to viable SMEs.
- Create specialist agricultural lending for farmers, farm businesses and agricultural co-operatives.
- Use An Post’s national branch network as a customer-access and advisory channel.
- Explore funding partly through State bank-share disposals or other State capital resources, subject to confirmation.
- Operate under strong Central Bank, prudential and governance requirements.
INDICATIVE INVESTMENT
Approximately €2 billion; proposed bank-share sale offset of about €0.9 billion; indicative net requirement €1.1 billion.
HISTORICAL RATIONALE
ICC was established in 1933 as a State-sponsored development finance body; ACC was established in 1927 to provide specialised agricultural credit. A modern institution would need to be designed for today’s banking, capital, EU and competition rules.