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Romania to receive 50 million Euros from EIB

Date: March 4^th 2010 Author: Anastasiya Georgieva Aleksandrova, Sofia Category: Articles
Topic: Economy

Piraeus Bank Romania will receive a 50 million Euro loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) as part of its plan to support small and medium enterprises (SME). The loan is intended to increase permanent working capital and to finance projects of SMEs in the fields of industry and services, including tourism, agriculture, health, energy, environmental protection and development of knowledge-based economy in Romania.

As a result of the global economic crisis, the conditions for receiving bank loans in Romania were heavily restricted by the banks. The purpose of EIB’s loan is focused on this problem precisely i.e. to facilitate access to financing for small and medium enterprises by improving access to medium and long term funds, which can be achieved by providing much more favourable financial conditions. Beside the preferential financing rates, EIB simplifies the procedures and broadens the scope of the covered financing by covering also intangible types of investment and working capital.

PHOTO: European Communities, 2009

The goal of EIB is to increase the transparency of funding and thus achieve a more effective transfer of the advantage of EIB funds to final beneficiaries. Such beneficiaries – according to the bank’s criteria – are SMEs (companies of up to 250 employees) and municipalities. Every application for such financing should meet eligibility criteria of the bank. In order to advise the applicants on whether they meet these criteria and to provide better access for them, EIB has been cooperating with local financial institutions such as Piraeus Bank Romania.

Piraeus Bank Group is a Greece-based financial organization with expertise in the areas of retail banking, small and medium-sized enterprises, leasing, capital markets and investment banking. Piraeus Bank Group has an international presence, focused in South-Eastern Europe and Eastern Mediterranean, but also in the financial centres of London and New York. At the end of September 2009, total assets of the bank which has a network of 900 branches across the globe amounted to 52.3 billion Euros.

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