* Admissibility date reflects the date the case was officially registered. All other dates pertain to the date in which a stage was completed.
Case Description
Complaint
In August 2012 the EIB Complaints Mechanism (EIB-CM) received a complaint alleging unfair treatment of the complainant's loan request by the Instituto Gallego de Promoción economica (IGAPE) in the framework of the IGAPE loan SMEs & Galicia Automotive project. This project concerns a global loan, signed by the EIB and the IGAPE on 30 January 2009, for the financing of small- and medium-scale projects according to the EIB’s eligibility criteria in the region of Galicia.
EIB-CM Action
The EIB-CM has performed an assessment of the complaint.
Conclusions
From the information gathered during the inquiry, it appears that loans for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are loans granted by the EIB to (private or public) financial institutions (intermediary banks, or “intermediaries”) for on-lending to SMEs. In particular, lending decisions, as the one taken by the IGAPE on the complainants' loan request, are made solely by the intermediary institutions, which operate independently as they assume the financial risk. As a result, the EIB-CM proceeds to close the case.