Established by EGEDA and the ICAA (Institute of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences of the Spanish Ministry of Culture) in 2005, with participation of FAPAE, AITE (technical industries’ association), FECE (exhibitors) and ADICINE (distributors), Audiovisual SGR is a pan-European financing institution aimed at supporting the audiovisual industry through financing and development of its projects. It’s a pioneering initiative – the first mutual guarantee society of its kind for the audiovisual industry – which responds to the needs of audiovisual companies, mainly SMEs, which have great difficulty accessing the financing needed for their activities, in terms of costs, payment periods, and terms & conditions.

The activity of the Audiovisual SGR is to provide guarantees to its participating members when obtaining financial resources from the lending institutions to which they apply, thus enabling them to have access to the financial market in addition to improving cost and payment return period conditions over what could be achieved without such guarantees.

The Audiovisual SGR’s main goal is to facilitate access to credit by SMEs and, in general, to improve financing conditions through the granting of loan guarantees with lending institutions, furthermore being able to provide financing advice and assistance.

The effectiveness of the Audiovisual SGR has been reinforced in 2010 by the European Union, with an institution called the Media Production Guarantee Fund, of which Audiovisual SGR was chosen as one of the two European entities charged with managing its funds. In this manner, Audiovisual SGR has been expanding its services to the rest of the European Union.