The third reason is the favorable conditions provided by our financial system to our exporters to increase their production, which is backed by the regulations of the Central Bank. Accordingly, as of May, investment and export loans account for about 28% of total commercial loans, the highest level of the last 20 years. TRY-denominated export and investment loans have grown rapidly since the beginning of 2022. Between December 2021 and May 2022, TRY commercial loans increased by TRY 618 billion, of which TRY 154 billion stemmed from the rise in export and investment loans. Likewise, the share of export and investment loans in total TRY commercial loans was constant around 10.1% before 2022, but reached 13.9% as of May 2022 thanks to new regulations. Through the rediscount credit facility we offer as the Central Bank, exporting firms have been provided with financing of USD 106 billion over the last five years. The costs of the rediscount credits extended are well below the market rates, helping firms keep their financing expenses at reasonable levels. Thanks to favorable interest rate conditions offered to rediscount credit beneficiary firms by the Central Bank, a cost advantage of up to USD 250 million per year has been provided since 2017. Compared to the first half of the previous year, the number of firms that used rediscount credits in the first six months of 2022 rose to 4,476 from 2,199, and the loan utilization amount went up to USD 11.1 billion from USD 9.3 billion.
Another potent factor is indeed the movement towards disintermediation, which should further amplify the role of CCPs. This disintermediation trend is fostered by public initiatives, such as the Capital Markets Union promoted by the European Commission in the EU. This movement is also related to market initiatives, notably in our financial centre here in Paris, to promote market financing as a complement for bank credit: for instance, the ESNI (Euro Secured Note Issuer) allows for the securitisation of high quality credit claims to improve SME financing. We also see a growing appetite of market participants for central clearing to further secure their transactions. Repos are increasingly cleared in CCPs in the EU, and this has stood as a key factor in the resilience of the European repo market over the latest years. However, with greater systemic importance come greater responsibilities. Greater responsibilities lie first with the industry. The clearing industry must have a coherent and resilient organization. We must not yield to the temptation to maximize netting effects. We all agree that the primary objective of central clearing is to reduce systemic risk. CCPS cannot be considered primarily as vehicles for improving operational and capital efficiency. They should be as well financial stability enhancers. The proposed merger of the London Stock Exchange Group and Deutsche Börse might be a relevant illustration of the risk of a trade-off between these two objectives. So we will closely look at it from a financial stability perspective, as I already said.