Luxembourg, 27/09/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Investment Bank granted four global loans with a total value of EUR 150 million to banks operating in Baltic States, Poland and Slovakia. These loans will be passed on to small and medium sized projects in the industry, services, tourism, infrastructures, environmental protection and energy saving sectors. It concerns global loans of:
EUR 50 million to Kredyt Bank S.A. member of the KBC Bank & Insurance group, for projects in Poland and Lithuania,
EUR 20 million to Citibank for financing in Slovakia,
EUR 50 million to the Citibank group, for projects in Poland
EUR 30 million to the Hansabank group in the Baltic countries for loans to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
The EIB underlines that it thus granted more than EUR 1.5 billion in global loans in Central Europe for small and medium sized projects, or 1.3% of all the credits granted since 1990. "In the EU, about on third of EIB lending is provided in the form of global loans. The Bank intends to further widen this form of cooperation with the banking sector in the candidate countries", indicated the EIB, while recalling that it has formed new partnerships for this type of loan with forty odd banks in the region.