The Government has urgently initiated the reform of the statutes of the Official Credit Institute (ICO) to adapt its operation to the España Crece fund. The proposal, approved by the organization's governing body and promoted by the Ministry of Economy, was put up for public hearing this Tuesday and will replace the statutes in force since 1999. The new regulatory framework seeks to adapt the structure of the ICO to the needs of the program, for which 13,691 million euros have been allocated. Of these, 10,891 million correspond to a capital increase, while the remaining 2,800 million are channeled through non-refundable transfers intended to cover the concessional component of certain operations.
España Crece, a financial vehicle that the Government sells as a sovereign fund, aims to prolong the investment drive of the community recovery plan, whose execution period ended on August 31, 2026. The program, framed in the simplification addendum to the plan approved by the Council of Ministers at the end of 2025, seeks to provide continuity to public investment with a stable financing structure and without a limited time horizon. To this end, the reform adapts the operation of the ICO, which will maintain its nature as a public business entity, credit institution and State Financial Agency, but will have a specific organization to manage the new resources and channel them towards strategic projects.
One of the main changes of the new statutes is the separation of all ICO's financial activity into two independent accounting portfolios. The Promotional Financing Portfolio will concentrate operations aimed at correcting market failures and mobilizing private financing towards priority sectors, while the Transversal Financing Portfolio will group the rest of the organization's operations, assets and commitments, as a complement to the private sector's credit offer. Both will maintain the unity of the institution's balance sheet, but their resources and results will be differentiated, so that the losses of one portfolio cannot be attributed to the own resources assigned to the other. The new structure seeks to guarantee transparency in the use of public capital and delimit the risks associated with each activity.
The reform also specifies the role of the ICO in public investment policy and expands the possibilities of intervention of the promotional portfolio. The statutes identify small and medium-sized businesses, the self-employed and growing companies as priority areas, in addition to investment in risk capital and patient capital, with which the organization can contribute to mobilizing private resources towards projects that need long-term resources. The new framework also directs activity towards strategic and frontier technologies, such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, semiconductors, cybersecurity and biotechnology, in addition to dual-use technologies, reindustrialization, energy transition, water management or affordable housing. Each promotional intervention must be articulated through specific programs or lines with objective criteria to avoid distortions of competition.
The reform will also allow ICO to take direct minority stakes in non-financial companies, without assuming control, to finance strategic projects, also in the field of housing. In terms of governance, it maintains the Governing Council, with 10 members—four independent and six representatives of the Administration—and creates the Promotional Financing Commission.
The new statutes also reorganize contracting through a collegiate committee and maintain the State guarantee to raise funds, as well as the prohibition of receiving deposits from the public. In addition, each portfolio must independently meet the solvency and liquidity requirements of the banking sector. The ICO will continue to be subject to the supervision of the Bank of Spain and the control of the supervisory bodies, and must respect the principles of subsidiarity and additionality, financial balance and European regulations on State aid.
