May 8, 2009 — The Honourable Jim Flaherty, Minister of Finance, and the Honourable Tony Clement, Minister of Industry, today welcomed the rollout of the Canadian Secured Credit Facility (CSCF).
“Our government has taken a broad and comprehensive approach to ensuring access to credit and financing through the Extraordinary Financing Framework announced in Canada's Economic Action Plan,” said Minister Flaherty. “The CSCF is a critical component of the Extraordinary Financing Framework, which identifies a key gap in the credit market and helps to address it.”
In Canada's Economic Action Plan, the Government announced the CSCF would purchase up to $12 billion of term asset-backed securities (ABS) backed by loans and leases on vehicles and equipment. The aims are to stimulate economic activity by supporting sales of vehicles and equipment in Canada and to encourage renewed investor participation and confidence in the Canadian ABS market for vehicle and equipment financing.
Today, the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) announced that over $10 billion of funding has been allocated in the Large Enterprise Tranche of the CSCF. Fifteen lenders from a cross-section of the vehicle and equipment financing industry have received the allocations.
“The key objective of the CSCF is to ensure access to credit for businesses and consumers, which is important to the auto industry at this critical time,” said Minister Clement. “At the same time, this measure will help stimulate Canada's manufacturing sector as the CSCF supports the sales of vehicles and heavy equipment.”
BDC also launched the process that will target an allocation of $1 billion in the Small Enterprise Tranche of the CSCF using a smaller minimum transaction size than in the Large Enterprise Tranche.
“The Government is committed to high standards of transparency and fairness with the CSCF, so we are ensuring that the CSCF is available to a broader range of lenders,” said Minister Flaherty.
A detailed description of the CSCF and its operations will be available shortly on the BDC website at www.bdc.ca.
For further information, media may contact:
Pema Lhalungpa
Press Secretary
Office of the Minister of Industry
613-995-9001
Media Relations
Industry Canada
613-943-2502
Chisholm Pothier
Press Secretary
Office of the Minister of Finance
613-996-7861
Jack Aubry
Media Relations
Department of Finance
613-996-8080
