The European Investment Bank (EIB) provides EUR 50 million to Raiffeisen Leasing Polska (RLPL) for financing small-scale investments ranging from EUR 10,000 to EUR 250,000 implemented by SMEs as well as by micro-enterprises with less than ten employees. The EIB funds will finance projects in the areas of industry (mostly purchase of transport equipment) and services or tourism.

This financial operation is innovatively structured as a purchase of asset based securities that are backed by claims from leasing contracts originated by the RLPL, a leading Polish leasing company - member of the Raiffeisen International Group. This structure enables the EIB to be involved in financing SMEs by other means than by provision of loans. The European Investment Fund is involved in this structure as a guarantor.

EIB funds will help Raiffeisen Group will finance small and medium enterprises, whose access to funding is still limited. This will continue the successful cooperation of the EIB with this Group to support SME investments benefiting from its knowledge of the local market as well as from the extensive network of branches in the country. The EIB has already provided the Raiffeisen Group in Poland with loans amounting to EUR 110 million before.

Support to SME investments represents one of the EIB lending priorities. SMEs are mostly very flexible, innovative and an important source of employment, particularly in rural and less developed regions. In Poland, the SME sector provides some 45% of all employment opportunities and contributes with approximately 60% to the GDP creation. EIB lending to Polish SMEs intermediated by local banks amounts to EUR 1.85 billion since 1990.

The EIB, as the European Union's long-term financing institution, has provided loans of EUR 11 billion for projects in Poland since 1990, representing approximately one third of the EIB lending provided in central and eastern Europe within this period. Only during the last year EIB lending in this country amounted to EUR 2 billion.

Within the EIB Group (composed of EIB and EIF), the European Investment Fund (EIF)IF is responsible for promoting the access to finance of SMEs through venture capital, SME guarantees and technical assistance. It operates only through financial intermediaries.