EBRD Lends 100 Mln Euro to Romania's Banca Transilvania To Back SMEs

“In Romania, borrowing by SMEs has fallen recently as a result of the shrinking availability of long term-debt financing for commercial banks,” the EBRD said in a statement.

"The world economic crisis has resulted in a sharp decline in the ability of small businesses to access the finance they need to keep expanding and fuelling the domestic economy," it said.

The money will go to more than 7,500 current active clients out of Banca Transilvania’s total 125,000 SME clients.

“ […] the EBRD financing will allow Banca Transilvania to continue lending to the real economy,” EBRD Director for Financial Institutions Nick Tesseyman added.

EBRD said in November it will raise investments in its countries of operations by 20% to up to 7.0 billion euro next year in response to the severe impact of the global economic crisis on central and eastern Europe (CEE).

Banca Transilvania is the largest private locally-owned Romanian bank. It has more than 500 branches across the country and it was the first bank to be listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange in 1997. EBRD holds a 14.5% stake in Banca Transilvania.

Blue-chip Banca Transilvania's shares last traded on September 12, closing 0.38% up at 0.262 lei ($ 0.095/0.066 euro) on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, where it is listed. The bank's shares are currently suspended from trading in connection with a capital hike.

($ = 0.6951 euro)