The European Investment Bank (EIB) has signed a EUR 300 million new generation EIB loan for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with Rabobank Nederland. Rabobank and its network of independent local Rabobanks will act as a financial intermediary for the EIB funds, passing them on to SMEs to support their investment projects. SMEs should start to benefit from EIB finance this summer.
The EIB loan for SMEs takes the form of a credit line that Rabobank will onlend to smaller firms with fewer than 250 employees across a wide range of economic sectors eligible for EIB financing. This is a “new generation” of EIB loans for SMEs designed to be more flexible and more transparent. It will ensure that the final recipients –Dutch SMEs – benefit from the advantages of EIB funding, mainly in the form of lower interest rates. The EU Finance Ministers have asked the EIB to extend, modernise and diversify its support to the SME sector in order to help small businesses weather the financial crisis.
Simon Brooks, the EIB Vice-President responsible for lending activities in the Netherlands, said, “In the spring, I was delighted to be in the Netherlands to meet the authorities, and representatives of both SMEs and banks, and to be able to announce a first operation for SMEs. I was confident then that we were on track to do more, and the signature of this loan with Rabobank confirms the EIB’s commitment to playing its part in supporting SMEs in their crucial role in the development of the Dutch economy, especially in these difficult times." Small businesses are of the utmost importance to the Dutch economy. An estimated 730 000 Dutch SMEs account for almost 60% of the country’s private sector employment and around 58% of private sector turnover.
EIB loans to Dutch SMEs in 2009
The European Investment Bank extensively revised its product offering for SMEs, developing a new lending formula called EIB loans for SMEs, which is designed to be simpler, more flexible and more transparent in a bid to help a greater number of small businesses undertake key investment projects to expand their business opportunities. The Rabobank loan has been made on these terms, as was the EIB loan for SMEs to ING in April. Other loans are still under discussion.
In total, the EIB has now made finance worth half a billion euros available to SMEs in the Netherlands since the beginning of 2009 through its programme of ‘EIB loans for SMEs’, significantly improving the way in which the EU’s long-term lending institution supports small and medium-sized firms. Find out more under www.eib.org/sme