The European Investment Bank (EIB) has granted a EUR 40 million loan to the Romanian branch of Dutch ING Bank, targeting companies both in the private and public sector.
ING said the intermediated loan will be used to finance small and medium-sized projects developed by SMEs and midcap companies, as well as by public sector companies or other private players. This is the first EIB loan taken out by ING Bank Romania.
Michal Szczurek, CEO ING Bank Romania, said: “SMEs and mid-corporate companies are an important vehicle for re-igniting the economic recovery. As small and medium businesses are growing, we aim to leverage their evolution and increasingly support the complex needs they might have in the near future.”
EIB’s local lending activity has reached EUR 9.4 billion in the last two decades, out of which EUR 700 million have been signed in the last five years.
“Over the last few years, we have seen a clear demand for SME financing in Romania. Midcap companies are, however, facing challenges in obtaining funding as they are often too big to be adequately addressed by existing SME programs,” said EIB vice-president Mihai Tanasescu, who is responsible for lending activities in Romania.
The EIB currently works with 11 financial intermediaries in Romania.
Ovidiu Posirca