- European Investment Bank subscribes to a Bankinter covered bond of €250 million. Operation will enable Bankinter to mobilise up to €500 million in loans.
- Financing will support investment for green projects by small and medium-sized businesses, and private individuals, with 20% of the funds earmarked for energy efficiency.
- Projects will be located mainly be in Spain and also in Portugal, and up to 50% are expected to be in cohesion regions.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) and Bankinter have signed an agreement for the purchase of a covered bond worth €250 million. This will enable Bankinter to mobilise up to €500 million in financing to support investment by small companies and mid-caps, and in green projects that focus specifically on energy efficiency improvements.
With 20% of the investment earmarked for energy efficiency projects, the operation is aligned with the EIB’s key policy objective of climate change mitigation. The projects will also contribute toward the objectives of REPowerEU, the EU plan designed to eliminate Europe’s dependence on fossil-fuel imports.
Energy efficiency upgrades will focus on the construction of nearly zero-energy buildings and on the renovation of existing building stock. Projects by private individuals, homeowner associations and real estate developers are all eligible for financing. Other green investments, such as solar photovoltaic installations for residential buildings will also be covered by this operation.
These upgrades will generate savings in primary energy consumption and reduction in carbon emissions (35 000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent a year). The operation will also have a positive impact on employment. According to the EIB’s preliminary estimates, the construction and renovation works will create jobs for 1,467 people a year during the implementation phase.
A significant proportion (50%) of the projects are expected to be located in EU cohesion regions in Spain and Portugal. These are regions with a per capita gross domestic product below the EU average and lag in investment. The operation will help alleviate these issues and promote equitable growth and convergence between EU regions, which is one of the key aims of the EIB’s cross-cutting activities.
“This new agreement with Bankinter covering two countries highlights the EIB Group’s commitment to ensuring that the benefits of our financing reach small and medium-sized enterprises. Such companies are essential for creating wealth and employment in the Spanish and Portuguese economies,” said EIB Vice-President Ricardo Mourinho Félix. “In addition, the special green project component will help to fast forward the energy transformation of housing and buildings while promoting economic, social and territorial cohesion in the European Union, all of which are priorities for the EIB Group.”
Bankinter Chief Executive Officer María Dolores Dancausa said: “This new agreement highlights the Bank's commitment to the economic development of small and medium-sized enterprises, both in Spain and Portugal, and our support to enable these enterprises to improve their energy efficiency and transition to more environmentally sustainable models.” Dancausa added: “Bankinter maintains a firm commitment to sustainability as a cross-cutting, integrated strategy that we have implemented in all of our activities. In fact, according to the main related indices, we are one of the most sustainable banks in the world.”
The EIB and energy security
In 2022, the EIB Group committed financing of more than €17 billion for the energy transition in Europe. As this is a top priority for the EU climate bank, Spain received a record €3.2 billion in financing for sustainable energy and natural resources projects in the same year, making it the second largest beneficiary of financing in the European Union. This figure confirms the Group’s commitment to ensuring access to sustainable energy at a time of great uncertainty. These investments are helping Europe weather the crisis triggered by the abrupt cut in gas supplies in the wake of Russia’s unjustified attack on Ukraine.
In October 2022, the EIB Board of Directors decided to raise the Group’s clean energy financing volumes to unprecedented levels in support of the REPowerEU objective of ending Europe’s dependence on Russian fossil fuel imports. Over the next five years, an additional €30 billion will be invested on top of the EIB’s already robust support for the EU energy sector. The financing pledged under REPowerEU is expected to generate an additional €115 billion in investment by 2027, thus making a substantial contribution to Europe’s energy independence and to the EIB Group’s target of mobilising €1 trillion in climate finance this decade.
Spain is set to play a key role in the deployment of REPowerEU and in helping the EIB Group see through its overarching long-term commitment to sustainable energy. This can be seen in the financing granted for projects such as Bankinter, as well as other energy efficiency and storage, renewable energy and energy network projects in Spain that have received EIB financing.
Find out more about the EIB’s support for the energy sector here.
Background information
About the EIB
The European Investment Bank Group (EIB Group) — formed by the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Investment Fund (EIF) — reported another year of excellent results in Spain, with record support for climate action and environmental sustainability projects and €9.9 billion of total financing signed in 2022.
About Bankinter
Bankinter is the fifth bank in the Spanish financial system in terms of size, profits and market capitalisation, and the first among listed banks in terms of return on capital and asset quality. It has more than 106 billion euros in total assets, lendings of 73 billion and controlled resources amounting to nearly 120 billion. With a presence in Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Luxembourg, Bankinter bases its strategy on various complementary business lines, one of the main ones being corporate business. Its corporate loan book totalled more than 30 billion euros at the end of March 2023, up 2.9% on the same period in 2022, above the sector average.