The European Investment Bank (EIB), the long-term financing institution of the European Union (EU), has made available a loan for EUR 180 million (ESP 30 billion)(1) to Banco Santander Central Hispanoamericano (BSCH) for financing small and medium-scale investment projects promoted by private enterprises or public institutions in both Spain and other EU countries.
The final beneficiaries of the loan will be SMEs undertaking industrial development and/or environmental improvement schemes, as well as municipalities and other local bodies mounting smaller-scale infrastructure projects.
This is the largest loan ever advanced by the EIB to a private financial institution in Spain and the first to BSCH. It will enable the Bank to continue its long-standing relationship with Banco de Santander and Banco Central Hispanoamericano, attested to by the ten previous EIB loans efficiently deployed by the two financial institutions before their merger.
The EIB was founded in 1958 under the Treaty of Rome, which created the European Economic Community, with the aim of fostering enhanced integration, balanced development and economic and social cohesion in the Member States by providing long-term financing for capital investment furthering attainment of European Union objectives.To support small and medium-scale projects, the EIB makes use of its global loan facility, devised by the Bank in 1968. Global loans are basically lines of credit opened to banks and other financial intermediaries operating at national, regional or local level, which pass on the proceeds, in the form of sub-loans, for smaller-scale investment schemes complying with the EIB's lending criteria.
(1) EUR 1 = ESP 166,386; GBP 0,647500.