The European Investment Bank and Banco Popolare signed yesterday an agreement for the allocation of a total of EUR 300m divided into two credit lines: EUR 200m to finance SMEs’ investment projects and initiatives in the industrial, services and tourism sectors; and EUR 100m to support public entities and utilities.

Under this partnership, EIB funds earmarked for SMEs will be distributed through the branches of the Banco Popolare Group’s network to enterprises with fewer than 250 employees via medium-term loans under the following terms: up to EUR 12.5m per project, maturity of up to 12 years, and fixed or floating interest rate.

This operation will help to provide new funding for enterprises, which will be able to access affordable capital with which to undertake business development programmes. Thanks to this initiative, Banco Popolare will be able to access additional flexible resources easily and quickly in order to offer concrete support to SMEs against the backdrop of the current financial crisis.

The loans granted under the EUR 100m credit line for public entities and utilities are intended to support small and medium-scale infrastructure projects in the energy, environmental, education and health sectors. Projects costing less than EUR 25m are eligible for financing, with a maximum of 50% of each project’s cost covered (EUR 12.5m). The term of the financing is up to 20 years.

The agreement signed yesterday underpins the EIB’s financial commitment to businesses under the “Loan for SMEs” programme through which the EIB has deployed EUR 30bn for European SMEs in the form of loans to be allocated via commercial banks.

Note to editors:

The European Investment Bank supports the political and strategic objectives of the European Union by granting long-term loans for economically sound investment projects. The EIB’s shareholders are the 27 EU Member States. Italy is one of the four leading shareholders, along with the United Kingdom, Germany and France, each holding a 16.2% stake in the Bank). At end-2008, the EIB’s total financing amounted to EUR 355bn, of which EUR 45bn went to Italy.