Brussels, 19/01/2009 (Agence Europe) - At a seminar on the “European Investment Bank's new financial instruments in collaboration with banks”, new possibilities for cooperation between the EIB and the Polish banking community were presented in Warsaw on Friday 16 January. The event, arranged by the Polish Banking Association (Zwiazek Bankow Polskich - ZBP) in cooperation with the EIB, focused on: - new loan and guarantee business lines; - the Risk Sharing Finance Facility; - the EIB's anti-recession instruments, to combat the financial crisis in the EU.
Representatives of almost 100 Polish banks of various types - commercial, cooperative and the state-owned Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego) - used the seminar as a platform for the exchange of information about the modern financial engineering instruments offered by the EIB Group (the European Investment Bank itself and the European Investment Fund).
To tackle the financial crisis, EIB lending to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) will rise by 50% to €15 billion over two years (i.e. an additional €2.5 billion per year). At the same time, the EIB is to offer intermediary banks more sophisticated risk-sharing products designed to reach market segments that commercial banks have difficulty penetrating (i.e. SMEs for which the risk is considered too great or the security provided is considered insufficient). A similar and complementary approach is being developed for mid-cap companies for an additional €1 billion per year.
To widen its contribution to research and development, the Bank has, with its partners, developed flexible new financing arrangements such as the Risk Sharing Finance Facility (RSFF), set up with the European Commission. By sharing credit risk between the Commission and the EIB, the RSFF extends the Bank's ability to provide loans or guarantees for projects whose promoters have a lower-grade risk profile - a concrete example of the EIB's relatively new strategy of financing higher-risk operations where this is justified by the Bank's strategic objectives. (O.L./transl.rt)