The European Investment Fund (EIF) and Nordea Bank Denmark have signed a guarantee agreement to support lending to innovative small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as Small Mid-caps under an initiative funded by the European Commission.

The new agreement signed under the Risk Sharing Instrument (RSI) initiative allows Nordea Bank Denmark to provide innovative companies in Denmark with access to a total of EUR 140m of financing for the next two years with support of the 50% guarantee provided by the EIF. This enables Nordea Bank to offer innovative companies additional financing at favourable conditions.

This is the first RSI agreement in Denmark and the 25^th in Europe so far, bringing the total loan finance available to innovative businesses across the EU under this initiative to well above EUR 2bn. The agreement signed today will help the bank to finance innovative businesses across the country.

Commenting on the signature, EIF Senior Structured Finance Manager, Roland Kampe said: “The EIF is pleased to be signing the first Risk Sharing Instrument (RSI) agreement in Denmark, under a DG Research and Innovation FP7 programme in support of innovative small and medium sized enterprises with Nordea Bank Denmark. This agreement in Denmark will ensure that much needed finance will be quickly channelled to a number of innovation driven businesses in the country.”

”With this programme we will be able to go one step further with the Credit perspective. We are pleased to offer financing to our present customers but also to invite new customers to Nordea to support their projects within product development and innovation. We see this as a great opportunity for the customers and for Nordea and a benefit for the local society” said Head of Coporate Business Development, Claus Greve.

The aim of the RSI Facility is to encourage banks to lend to SMEs and small mid-caps with fewer than 500 employees in need of investment financing and/or operating capital to support research, development and innovation activities, with EU financial support. Banks are being selected by the EIF following a call for expression of interest for financial intermediaries across Europe.

About Risk-Sharing Instrument (RSI) under FP7

The RSI facility aims to encourage banks to provide loans of up to €7.5 million to SMEs and small mid-caps undertaking research, development or innovation, and seeking finance for investments and/or working capital. The RSI is a joint initiative of the EIF, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Commission. It is supported by the European Union under the Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7) and uses EIF's risk-taking capacity. It is part of, and complements, the existing Risk Sharing Finance Facility (RSFF), managed by the EIB.

Under this facility, the European Investment Fund (EIF) is providing guarantees to banks and leasing companies that lend to SMEs and Small Mid-Caps. The guarantee covers, upon default, up to 50% of the outstanding amount of each loan. Some 25 or so banks are expected to be involved in the pilot phase, allowing the RSI to reach a total loan volume of up to €2.5 billion channelled to innovative SMEs and Small Mid-caps.

The call is open to financial or credit institutions, established and operating in the EU and/or countries associated to FP7, including, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway, Switzerland, Israel, Turkey, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia, Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina, the Faroe Islands and Moldova.

About the EIF

The European Investment Fund's (EIF) central mission is to support Europe's micro, small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) by helping them to access finance. EIF designs and develops venture and growth capital, guarantees and microfinance instruments which specifically target this market segment. In this role, EIF fosters EU objectives in support of innovation, research and development, entrepreneurship, growth, and employment. EIF’s total net commitments to private equity funds amounted to over EUR 7.9bn at end 2013. With investments in over 435 funds, EIF is a leading player in European venture due to the scale and the scope of its investments, especially in high-tech and early-stage segments. EIF’s guarantees loan portfolio totalled over EUR 5.6bn in over 300 operations at end 2013, positioning it as a major European SME guarantees actor and a leading micro-finance guarantor.

About Nordea Bank

Nordea is the largest financial services group in Northern Europe with a market capitalisation of approximately EUR 39.7bn, total assets of EUR 630bn and a core tier 1 capital ratio of 14.9%.

Nordea has leading positions within corporate merchant banking as well as retail banking and private banking. It is also the leading provider of life and pensions products in the Nordic countries.

With approximately 800 branches, call centres in all Nordic countries and a highly competitive e-bank, Nordea has the largest distribution network in the Nordic and Baltic Sea region.

Nordea has the largest customer base of any financial services group in the Nordic region with approximately 11 million customers including new European markets, of which 10 million are household customers in customer programmes and 0.6 million are corporate customers.

Nordea’s vision is to be a Great European bank, acknowledged for its people, creating superior value for customers and shareholders.

Press contacts:

EIF: David Yormesor
Tel.: +352 42 66 88 346, e-mail: d.yormesor@eif.org

Nordea Bank: Claus Greve
Tel.: +45 33 33 67 88, e-mail: claus.greve@nordea.dk