Ifcic

Created in 1983 at the joint initiative of French public authorities and the main French banks, Ifcic is a deliberately atypical and unique enterprise in the cultural financing landscape:

• A mission of general interest serving cultural and creative businesses throughout the scope of French Ministry of Culture.

• A credit institution approved by the Prudential Control and Resolution Authority.

• A private company managing almost exclusively public funds.

• A State approved governance relying on a private / public balance.

• A human-scaled organization, agile and with a strong cultural and banking expertise.

Thanks to this specific model, Ifcic supports the financing of more than 2,000 cultural companies, at all stages of their economic life cycle: creation, development, production, distribution, promotion, structuring, transmission, etc.

Ifcic activities build an essential link between the culture and creative sectors and the banking sector. They are in continuity with the whole French culture financing ecosystem and, when it occurs, the European one.

Financing cultural companies

Cultural and creative businesses operate among a wide variety of fields, each of them a specific ecosystem: cinema and audiovisual, music, book, performing arts, theatre, fashion, art galleries, cultural heritage, press and medias, video game, design, craftmanship, architecture, photography, plastic arts, digital creation….

The economy of cultural and creative companies usually relies on a logic of supply: the industry offers new works and experiences to the public. It creates prototypes whose design and production imply recurring financing needs. Investments and cash flow requirements relating to any entrepreneurial project (WCR, structuring) add on. Ifcic’s specialization and expertise in the cultural and creative field allows it to offer financing solutions adapted to each project, according to its sector of activity and its financing needs.

Ifcic operates with two financial tools, bank guarantee and loan, and offers:

• To cultural companies, its financial support and banking expertise
• To banks, its expertise of the specific risks relating to cultural and creative companies.

Ifcic is therefore a key interlocutor to facilitate and help the choice and implementation of the most suitable financing solutions.

Guarantee

The guarantee is Ifcic’s historical tool. It covers part of the risk taken by the bank when it finances a cultural company.

Its rate varies from 50% to 70 %, thus being a decisive « trigger » for the involvement of a bank. The guarantee applies to all types of credit, intended to finance most needs of cultural businesses. It encourages less recourse to personal guarantees taken from the companies’ managers or shareholders.

It is the bank, beneficiary of the guarantee, which constitutes and presents the guarantee request file to Ifcic.

Since 2006, with the support of the CNC and the European Union, Ifcic has broadened its geographical reach by issuing loan guarantees in favour of European film producers located outside of France, and of European films not eligible to French state support schemes.

Loan

Ifcic’s loans to cultural and creative businesses and associations are used when a project requires additional support. They are designed to promote leverage and often act as a complement to a bank guarantee. Ifcic’s loans can support any business or non-profit organization created in France, operating in the creative and cultural sectors (relating to the scope of the Ministry of Culture).

They do not include any guarantee taken on the borrower (e.g.: pledge of business assets, personal guarantee, delegation of insurance to directors, mortgage). These securities remain at the disposal of banks to encourage their involvement.

In this logic of complementarity with the action of banks (or other financial partners), Ifcic’s loans are namely intended to finance development, particularly around intangible investments.

In certain cases, loans can take on a participatory nature, making them comparable to equity and allowing the establishment of extended repayment periods and capital franchises.