Analytics, Business, EU – Baltic States, Modern EU

The European Investment Bank (EIB) and Spanish BBVA are joining forces to provide financing on favourable terms for Spanish SMEs and mid-caps. The two sides signed an agreement in Madrid enabling the Spanish bank to provide €600m to support the SMEs investments. With this agreement, BBVA will be able to offer them favourable financing in terms of both maturity and interest rates.

To this end, the EIB has granted a €300m guarantee to BBVA via a risk-sharing (portfolio guarantee) operation, an innovative agreement making it possible to spread the risks between the two institutions. Under this guarantee, the EIB will invest in a loan portfolio held by BBVA, enabling the Spanish bank to expand its financing capacity and provide SMEs with €600m in new financing. This is the first risk-sharing operation to be signed by the EIB and BBVA.

The EIB is granting €150m of this guarantee under the Investment Plan for Europe, the support of which enables the EU bank to finance riskier projects. In concrete terms, these funds will help finance especially vulnerable SMEs such as micro-enterprises and entrepreneurs.

The €600m in financing to be provided by BBVA under this agreement will be of particular benefit to small companies operating in regions with high levels of unemployment, and will support investments focused on innovation and the development of projects promoting climate action. Some 1 700 companies with a total of almost 9 000 employees will be able to benefit from this agreement. 

On the EU’s investment plan in:

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/strategy/priorities-2019-2024/jobs-growth-and-investment/investment-plan-europe-juncker-plan_en

On BBVA

Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A. (better known as BBVA, found in 1857), is a Spanish multinational financial services company based in Madrid and Bilbao. It is one of the largest financial institutions in the world, and is present mainly in Spain, South America, North America, Turkey, Romania, etc.

It is Spain's second largest bank by volume of assets after Banco Santander; and is listed on the Madrid Stock Exchange and is part of the IBEX 35 as well as the Dow Jones EURO STOXX 50.

BBVA's assets amounted to about € 700 bn (the end of 2018); it has about 8 hundred offices, 126 thousand employees and 74.5 mln customers and is present in more than 30 countries

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banco_Bilbao_Vizcaya_Argentaria