EIF and ProCredit Bank sign first COSME agreement in Bosnia and Herzegovina

The European Investment Fund (EIF) and ProCredit Bank in Bosnia and Herzegovina (PCBH) have signed the first COSME agreement to provide guarantees for EUR 30 million of new loans to small and medium-sized local businesses.

The proposed transaction, backed by the EU COSME programme will allow PCBH to offer new debt financing products with substantially reduced collateral requirements to SMEs.

The agreement will result in increased credit risk taking for 300 Bosnian and Herzegovinian SMEs over the period of 3 years.

EIF Chief Executive, Pier Luigi Gilibert said: "EIF is delighted to be signing the first COSME guarantee agreement in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Business support and job creation lies at the heart of EIF’s strategy and this new transaction will contribute to driving growth both in Bosnia and Herzegovina and across Europe.”

European Commissioner for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, Elżbieta Bieńkowska said: "Access to finance remains an important hurdle for SMEs. Today's agreement with ProCredit Bank is an excellent example of how the European Union supports small companies to finance their investments to boost growth and job creation”.

Amel Agić, Executive Director of ProCredit Bank BiH emphasised: “We are honoured to be able to provide our clients, SMEs - which we believe to be the generators of broad social and economic change in the country - with easier access to the funds they need for their operations. Thanks to EIF’s support through the COSME programme, ProCredit Bank BiH is able to offer more favourable lending terms, such as reduced collateral requirements.“

About EIF

The European Investment Fund (EIF) is part of the European Investment Bank group. Its 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. More information on EIF's work under the EFSI is available here.

About ProCredit Bank

ProCredit Bank BiH is a development-oriented commercial bank specialised in serving small and medium-sized companies. ProCredit Bank BiH is part of the ProCredit group headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany. ProCredit Bank BiH is 100% owned by ProCredit Holding, the parent company of the international ProCredit group. The anchor shareholders of ProCredit Holding AG & Co. KGaA include the strategic investors Zeitinger Invest and ProCredit Staff Invest (comprising the investment vehicles for ProCredit staff), the Dutch DOEN Participates BV, KfW Development Bank and IFC (part of the World Bank Group). ProCredit BiH fully applies group-wide business principles, such as transparency in communication with our clients and providing services which are based on both understanding every client’s needs and on sound financial analysis.

More information on ProCredit Bank BiH please find here.

About COSME

COSME is the EU programme for the Competitiveness of Enterprises and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) running from 2014 to 2020 with a total budget of EUR 2.3 billion. At least 60% of the programme will be devoted to easing access to finance for SMEs in Europe, with two financial instruments. The COSME Loan Guarantee Facility supports guarantees and counter-guarantees to financial institutions to help them provide more loans and lease finance to SMEs. This facility also includes securitisation of SME debt finance portfolios. The COSME programme also invests through the COSME Equity Facility for Growth in equity funds that provide risk capital to SMEs mainly in the expansion and growth stages. The COSME programme builds on the success of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP) (2007-2013) which helped to mobilise more than EUR 21 billion of loans and EUR 3 billion of venture capital to almost 400,000 SMEs in Europe.

Businesses can contact selected financial institutions in their country to access EU financing: http://www.access2finance.eu/

Press contacts:

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

ProCredit Bank BiH:
Elma Čavčić
Tel.: +387 33 250 950
E-mail: e.cavcic@procreditbank.ba 

European Commission:
Siobhan Millbright
Tel.: + 32 22964976
E-mail: siobhan.millbright@ec.europa.eu