ICC Bank has signed a £11.5 million, seven year, revolving credit facility with a syndicate of 12 banks.

Arranged by Bank of Ireland and Chase Investment Bank, it will be used by its subsidiary, ICC Investment Bank, to expand lending, venture capital and other vices to small and medium sized companies.

The facility is competitively priced at a margin of 0.125 of a percentage point over the Dublin interbank offered rate (DIBOR) for the first three years and 0.15 of a point for the final four years. Asked about the margin ICC will earn, Mr John Staunton ICC Bank's treasurer, said the funds will be lent on different products and the rate will be "market driven".

Most of the funds, he added will go on lending and the amount going on venture capital projects will depend on market conditions.

ICC said it had sought a facility of £100 million but it was over subscribed. It is the largest single tranche of funds raised in the market by ICC. Although ICC is State controlled, there is no State guarantee for the funds.

The facility is denominated entirely in pounds. As it may be drawn down over the next seven years this, said ICC, indicates the attractiveness of the Irish currency in the international banking market".

Apart from the Bank of Ireland and Chase Investment Bank, the other banks in the syndicate comprise Den Danske Bank (Denmark), Deutsche Bank Luxembourg, DG BANK (Germ many), Dresdner Bank Luxembourg, Scotiabank (Ireland), Sudwestdeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale (London branch), Ulster Bank Markets, ABN AMRO Bank (Netherlands), Banque Nationale de Paris (Dublin branch) and SGZ-Bank International (Luxembourg).

The facility was pretty evenly spread among the banks, said Mr Staunton.