February 1 (SeeNews) - The European Investment Bank (EIB) has agreed to extend financing to the Serbian units of Societe Generale, Erste Group and Intesa Sanpaolo to provide support to small and medium-sized enterprises, EIB vice-president Dario Scannapieco said.
"In the first month of 2018, the EIB has already signed a loan of 50 million euro ($62.2 million) with Societe Generale Serbia, 60 million euro loan with Erste Bank Serbia, and tomorrow will sign a 30 million euro loan with Banca Intesa Serbia, all of them for the benefit of SMEs," Scannapieco said in a video file posted on the website of Serbian news agency Tanjug on Wednesday.
Moreover, the EIB will sign this week a guarantee facility with Banca Intesa Serbia to increase the portfolio volume to 360 million euro from 160 million euro, Scannapieco said.
"On the one side we are providing liquidity at cheap conditions to the banks so that they can lend to SMEs, but on the other side we are also reducing the risk for the banks when they lend."
In October, the EIB said it signed four loans totalling 110 million in Serbia with the Serbian banking and leasing subsidiaries of Intesa Sanpaolo and Societe Generale. The loans will support projects of SMEs and infrastructure projects of local authorities. They are the initial tranches of a total of 190 million in credit lines already approved by the EIB to support the Serbian economy together with the two banking groups, the EIB said back.
The EIB has extended financing of 2.5 billion euro for the support of SMEs in the Western Balkans, sustaining some 400,000 jobs, Scannapieco said in the video file.
($ = 0.803913 euro)
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