European Investment Fund officials will travel to Malta in January to negotiate with the three local financial intermediaries which have expressed their interest to administer the long-awaited micro-credit scheme, a Finance Ministry official told The Times Business.

The €10 million fund for the scheme, financed by the European Union under the JEREMIE regional funding programme, was originally pledged in the government’s 2009 Budget but never got off the ground.

It was mentioned again in the last Budget in October.

“The EIF is evaluating these expressions of interest and carrying out the relative due diligence exercises,” the official said. “At this stage, the process is being handled at EIF level.”

Under the scheme, micro and small firms would be granted loans of up to €25,000 at advantageous rates but the drawn-out process for its launch has left the SME community and business chambers frustrated.

The scheme’s launch was first envisaged for last April. But in May, Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business Jason Azzopardi had assured The Times Business that the local authorities had done all that was required of them – Dr Azzopardi emphasised the scheme’s launch did not depend solely on them.

Businesses had hoped the scheme would see the light of day by September. But by then the government would only say that the scheme was “in its final stages of preparation” and that the EIF’s call for expressions of interest closed in mid-November.

At the time, the Finance Ministry said it was unable to commit itself on the duration of the EIF’s evaluation but said it hoped the matter would be settled “at the earliest possible”.