The European Investment Bank, the European Union's financing institution, has made available two global loans totalling FRF 1.5 billion (ECU 226 million)(1) to the Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP) group for funding smaller scale industrial and service-sector ventures plus environmental protection and energy schemes, both in France and in other EU countries.
The first global loan, for FRF 1 billion, will be drawn on by BNP's French network to provide medium-term loans for capital investment promoted by SMEs.
The second credit line, for FRF 500 million, will be deployed by BNP LEASE and its subsidiaries. This sub-group, born of the merger of BNP BAIL and CREDIT UNIVERSEL, arranges leasing facilities, medium-term loans and leasing finance in support of ventures undertaken by SMEs and local authorities. The global loan may also be used to help fund projects in the health sector. An earlier credit line involving BNP BAIL assisted over 1 000 ventures implemented by SMEs.
These latest operations represent further examples of EIB backing for investment by SMEs in partnership with French banks, including the BNP Group, an established EIB intermediary in France and the European Union as a whole.
One of the goals of the EIB is to foster capital investment by SMEs and local authorities through global loans concluded with around 120 banks in the European Union. These loans are akin to lines of credit which the partner financing institutions draw on to fund ventures in compliance with EIB lending criteria. Over the past five years, some ECU 18.5 billion have benefited almost 56 000 SMEs throughout the EU. In France, during the same period, more than 23 000 SMEs have attracted support from global loans under drawdown with banks and financing institutions.
(1) The conversion rates used by the EIB for statistical purposes during the current quarter are those obtaining on 30 June 1998, when ECU 1 = 0.66 GBP, 0.78 IEP, FRF 6.63 and 1.09590 USD.