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  • A new envelope to meet their funding needs, especially when they are setting up a business.
  • Support for female entrepreneurship with a minimum of 30% of the financing reserved for female healthcare professionals.
  • This cooperation extends an initial €250 million partnership signed in 2021, which was especially dedicated to areas suffering from a shortage of medical services.

Crédit Agricole places particular emphasis on access to care and will devote 50% of the financing envelope, i.e. €200 million, to support the establishment of regulated healthcare professionals and very small businesses in the health sector throughout the country. This financing operation will assist healthcare professionals in developing their businesses — via investments in equipment, real estate or intangible assets such as business goodwill — and help new practitioners set up all over France, including in areas under pressure.

Crédit Agricole, which is the first French and European bank to incorporate a feminisation condition for lending in the health sector, also supports female entrepreneurship in the health sector and dedicates 30% of the total financing amount, i.e. €120 million, to female healthcare professionals.

Crédit Agricole offers loans of a minimum of €50 000 at a subsidised rate to finance up to 100% of the projects of healthcare professionals.

“The European Investment Bank is very proud to continue, alongside the Crédit Agricole Group, to support healthcare professionals whose access to easily mobilised and affordable sources of finance is essential to the development of their business,” stressed EIB Vice-President Ambroise Fayolle. “The fact that a sizeable share of the loans made available is reserved for female healthcare professionals is a strong sign of commitment to promoting female entrepreneurship in these professions, which are vital to the well-being of the population.” 

“In response to the health crisis that we have experienced, our bank wishes to encourage the development of healthcare professionals’ projects throughout the country. I wish to acknowledge, in particular, our joint efforts with the European Investment Bank to promote female entrepreneurship, thus cultivating greater diversity in the field of healthcare and in all economic sectors in general,” said Michel Ganzin, Deputy General Manager of Crédit Agricole SA.

Background information

About the European Investment Bank

As the EU climate bank, it aims to encourage the emergence and deployment of innovations to meet ongoing challenges such as the energy transition to a new low-carbon growth model. In 2021, the EIB spent more than two thirds of its €9.2 billion in investments in France on climate action projects.

About Crédit Agricole Group

Crédit Agricole Group is the French economy’s leading financier and one of the top banking groups in Europe. It is the leading local bank, the top asset manager, the leading bancassurance company and the third-largest project financing operator in Europe. Crédit Agricole Group is founded on cooperative and mutual principles and has 147 000 employees and more than 30 000 directors of local and regional banks. It is a responsible and useful bank, serving its 53 million customers, 11.2 million members and 800 000 individual shareholders.

Thanks to its universal retail banking model (there is a close connection between its retail banks and specific business areas), the Crédit Agricole Group supports its customers in their projects in France and worldwide: day-to-day banking, mortgage lending and consumer credit, savings, insurance, asset management, real estate, leasing, factoring, corporate finance and investment banking. Crédit Agricole serves the economy and is also marked by its dynamic and innovative corporate social responsibility policy. A pragmatic approach permeates the whole Group and each staff member is actively involved.