The Eurobank EFG Group is becoming a major partner of supranational financial institutions for the support of small and medium enterprises in Greece and Southeast Europe (Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia and Turkey).
The total funds secured for financing small and medium-sized businesses, through the expanding cooperation between Eurobank EFG, the European Investment Bank (EIB), and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), as well as the new cooperation concluded by the Bank with the International Financing Agency (IFC), a member of the World Bank, reach over € 1.4 billion. The size of these funds underlines the commitment of the Eurobank EFG Group to support the new growth model by strengthening outward-looking or export-oriented firms, both in Greece and in the wider geographical region where it operates.
Of the total funds, € 600 million are earmarked for investments in Greece and over € 800 million in the four other countries covered by the financing agreements, namely Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Turkey. 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.
In particular, 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, an amount that, in May 2010 already, ranked Eurobank EFG in one of the top positions among EIB's partners across Europe.
In the framework of this cooperation with the EBRD, the total credit limits for Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia and Turkey amount to € 280 million, while € 95 million have been guaranteed through the IFC. There are plans to expand the collaborations in 2011.
Through these financing agreements, Eurobank EFG puts into practice its commitment to support dynamic, outward-looking or export-oriented entrepreneurship in Greece, and also 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.
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