February 21 (SeeNews) - The European Investment Fund (EIF) is going to unveil a fresh 20 million euro ($24.7 million) credit guarantee facility for Serbian banks to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the head of the European Investment Bank (EIB) for the Western Balkans, Dubravka Negre, said on Wednesday.
The guarantee will be available to all Serbian banks and will be unveiled in the middle of March, Negre said in a video file posted on the website of Serbian news agency Tanjug.
This is an opportunity for the banks that have not been cooperating with the EIF so far to express interest towards the guarantee facility; they will be able to compete and the participants in the programme will be announced in the middle of 2018, Negre said.
The main objective of the project is to encourage lending to SMEs, as currently there is enough liquidity in the Serbian banking sector, but there are no mechanisms enabling banks to assume more risk and reduce their collateral demands, she noted.
Earlier this month, the EIB said it is lending 50 million euro to Societe Generale Serbia, 60 million euro to Erste Bank Serbia, and 30 million euro to Banca Intesa Serbia to provide support to SMEs in Serbia.
EIF is part of the European Investment Bank Group. Its central mission is to support Europe's micro, small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) by helping them access finance.
($ = 0.811014 euro)