Small and Medium Enterprises in Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia and Turkey will Receive Credit Lines for 805 million Euro

The funding is provided  by Eurobank EFG Group in cooperation with the European Investment Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Financing Agency

The Eurobank EFG Group, part of which is Postbank, secured credit lines financing  amounting to over € 1.4 billion for small and medium-size enterprises in Greece and the countries in Southeast Europe – Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia and Turkey. This places the Group as a major partner of supranational financial institutions for the support of small and medium enterprises.

€ 805 million from the total fund are allocated for the countries covered by the financing agreements, namely Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia and Turkey, and € 600 million – for investments in Greece. To date, total disbursements to all countries are approaching € 1 billion, financing nearly 2,000 small and medium enterprises. In Greece, Eurobank EFG has provided funds to more than 1,500 companies, at a time where the assurance of liquidity is both vital for the SMEs themselves and a prerequisite for the exit of the Greek economy from the crisis and its return to sustainable growth.

The investments are a result of the expanding cooperation between Eurobank EFG and the European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the International Financing Agency (IFC), a member of the World Bank. The size of the funds underlines the commitment of the Eurobank EFG Group to support the new growth model by strengthening outward-oriented firms, both in Greece and in the wider geographical region where it operates. Through these financing agreements, Eurobank EFG  demonstrates its ability to respond to the call of the “Vienna Initiative”, under which the three international banking organizations signed a two-year memorandum of understanding totalling € 25.1 billion to overcome the global economic crisis of 2009.

As regards the cooperation with the European Investment Bank (EIB), Eurobank EFG has signed contracts with a total credit limit of more than € 1 billion. In the framework of this cooperation with the EBRD, the total credit limits for Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia and Turkey amount to € 280 million, while € 95 million have been guaranteed through the IFC. There are plans for expanding the collaborations in 2011.