“The Audiovisual Sector is not a Risk”

“The audiovisual sector is not a risk. We have seen this for some time” . This was one of the key points of the Financing and Business Management session held at the headquarters of Foment del Treball. Organised by the Catalan Audiovisual Cluster, the session was part of a new line of exclusive activities designed to inform its members about the latest developments in the legal and financing fields affecting corporate governance.

The point was made by the representative of Triodos Bank, one of the few banks with specific funding opportunities for the audiovisual sector, especially in the field of production, distribution and exhibition. This bank currently serves about three hundred audiovisual projects in Catalonia alone. “The traditional idea that the audiovisual sector is unstable is still too widespread. Triodos Bank takes the opposite position. Of course, it is important to have a true understanding of the sector. We have seen projects that failed – not because they weren’t good projects, or viable ones, but because they were badly financed.”

Aside from traditional banks, recent years have marked the appearence of alternative financing tools. Such is the case of Novicap, a recent but well-established fintech company specializing in funding the working capital of companies and which functions exclusively online. “Unfortunately, Spain is one of the European countries with the longest payment periods. So we created this tool. Basically, what we do is anticipate the payment of bills in a very agile way, simply by uploading them on the Internet. Therefore, the ultimate goal is to provide a very rapid response system to the cashflow tensions arising from payments that are delayed sixty, ninety or even one hundred and twenty days. It’s something not often offered by traditional banks, which are mostly too rigid.”

The session was intitiated by Riba-Vidal, a law firm associated with the Cluster and specialized in legal assistance to entrepreneurs and managers. Its lawyers have closely followed the lastest reform of the penal code, considered an “absolute tsunami” in regard to its effect on businesses. “The new law requires companies to implement a policy of crime prevention. From now on, criminal responsibility no longer lies with the individual committing the crime, but with the company as a whole. This can be a big problem for managers and executives, especially since crimes can be committed unconsciously, out of ignorance.” Riba-Vidal detailed the principle measures that companies should implement to adapt to the new legal reform.