Spain: EIB and ICO provide EUR 1 billion to support SME projects
The European Investment Bank (EIB) has approved a EUR 500 million loan to Spain’s Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO) designed to facilitate small and medium-sized businesses’ access to bank finance, including for investment in working capital, on favourable terms. ICO will match the EIB loan with the same amount, meaning that a total of EUR 1 billion will be pumped into the small business sector.
The loan agreement was signed in Madrid this morning by EIB Vice-President Magdalena Álvarez and ICO’s CEO, Román Escolano.
This EIB loan will be used to finance small and medium-scale projects carried out by SMEs, mainly in convergence regions in Spain, where small businesses are key to safeguarding and creating jobs, and the European Union.
This is the EIB’s fourth SME financing loan to ICO in operations of this type totalling EUR 2 billion (EUR 4 billion with ICO’s matching finance) and follows on from numerous other credit lines in a relationship that goes back to 1986, proving once again that the two institutions are working hard together to facilitate SMEs’ access to finance in the midst of an economic crisis.
As an EU objective, supporting SMEs is one of the EIB’s investment priorities. This loan comes under the EIB’s policy of assisting small businesses in the current economic crisis by facilitating their access to credit with long maturities, flexible disbursement schedules and low interest rates, so ensuring their sustainability and fostering job creation.
