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The operation consists of a Lending Envelope (LE) to scale up digital investments by EU banks, with a focus on mid-sized and smaller local banks. The LE supports the modernisation of digital infrastructure, including AI-driven credit scoring, secure data management, and process automation to improve access to finance, including for vulnerable individuals and small, medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
The aim is to finance IT related projects, which are envisaged to cover the research, development, innovation and implementation of IT systems in the fields of mobile services, digitalisation, process optimisation, business model evolution, regulatory compliance, risk management and cyber security.
The implementation of banking IT systems is not covered under the Directive 2011/92/EU amended by the environmental impact assessment (EIA) Directive 2014/52/EU. In addition, the project activities are expected to be carried out in existing facilities that are already used for the same purposes and that are not expected to change their scope due to the project. Full environmental details will however be assessed by the Bank's services during the sub-projects' due diligence.
The promoters of the individual sub-projects under the project are expected to be private companies not being subject to EU rules on public procurement or concessions. However, if at the project appraisal of the individual sub-projects, the EIB were to conclude that the promoter is subject to the EU public procurement legislation then the Bank would duly inform the Commission Services and would require the promoter to apply those rules.