The European Investment Bank (EIB) has approved a €500 million loan to Spain’s Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO) designed to facilitate small and medium-sized businesses’ access to bank finance. The ICO for its part, will match the EIB loan with the same amount, thus, €1 billion in total.

€500 million loan to Spain’s Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO) will be provided to facilitate small and medium-sized businesses’ access to bank finance, including for investment in working capital, on favourable terms. The ICO will match the EIB loan with the same amount, meaning that a total of €1 billion will be pumped into the small business sector. In June 2012 it was published that the European Investment Bank funding for SMEs reached a record level in 2011.

This loan comes under the EIB’s policy of assisting small businesses in the current economic crisis by facilitating their access to credit with long maturities, flexible disbursement schedules and low interest rates, so ensuring their sustainability and fostering job creation. Supporting SMEs is one of the EIB’s investment priorities as well as an EU objective.

This is the EIB’s fourth SME financing loan to ICO in operations of this type totalling €2 billion (€4 billion with ICO’s matching finance). According to the EIB, it proves once again that the two institutions are working hard together to facilitate SMEs’ access to finance in the midst of an economic crisis.