The European Investment Bank (EIB) and Crédit Coopératif today signed a new EUR 100 million credit line to support investment by small and medium-sized enterprises. This commitment follows on from a first EUR 150 million programme launched by the EIB and Crédit Coopératif in 2009, which has benefited 330 SMEs.
This credit line is aimed at independent companies with fewer than 250 employees mounting projects costing less than EUR 25 million. Thanks to this EIB operation, they will be able to receive loans from Crédit Coopératif on particularly favourable financial terms, including a 0.40% reduction of the applicable interest rate.
The loan agreement was signed in Paris by the Chairman and the CEO of the Crédit Coopératif Group, Jean-Louis Bancel and François Dorémus, and EIB Vice-President Philippe de Fontaine Vive, testifying to the 20-year quality partnership between the EIB and Crédit Coopératif and consolidating Crédit Coopératif’s position as a key European player in the financing of small businesses, associations and general interest organisations.
This new credit line forms part of the EIB’s strategy of helping small European businesses in a bid to boost growth and employment. In 2011 alone, the EIB group provided loans worth some EUR 13 billion in support 120 000 in SMEs in Europe.