The European Investment Fund and FINS will strengthen support for student loans following agreement of a new EFSI Skills & Education Pilot guarantee in Romania. This will allow school and college students within the EU, who want to pursue Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in any EU Member State, to get a student loan without the need for income history, real estate guarantees or co-signers.

This guarantee agreement will allow FINS to provide €5.5 million of new loans, for 300-350 students who wish to study for Bachelor and Master degrees at a higher education institution within the European Union.

The new financing is thanks to the guarantee that has been provided by the European Union under the European Fund For Strategic Investments (EFSI) under the dedicated EFSI Skills & Education Pilot. The purpose of EFSI is to help support financing and implementing productive investments in the European Union and to ensure increased access to financing.

The new FINS student loan programme backed by the EIF will ensure that:

Students will not need any employment or income history;
Students or their families will not need to provide any real estate guarantees;
Students will not need any co-signers;

The student loans provided by FINS are customized to reflect the specific financial needs of students: the use of the loan is personalized for each student and repayment starts after a grace period of up to 12 months after graduation.

This means that during their studies, students will not be under pressure to repay as with normal loans, and repayment will be possible once they start employment after graduation.

Alexandru Ghiță, the founder of FINS and of the EDUCATIVA Group says that: “Through FINS study loans we manage to offer the best solution for the real financial needs of young adults that are starting their careers with the help of a great study program, thus making it possible for them to access quality education. The most important consideration for a student is to be able to cover the costs of their studies without depending on their families or other third parties. With the first guarantee agreement signed with the European Investment Fund in 2019 we managed to eliminate the requirement of co-signers for students wanting to study a Master’s degree program. With the second line of guarantee that we have just signed, we are able to extend this facility to those wanting to study a Bachelor's degree abroad. Our goal is to reach in a few years a volume of over 1,000 students financed each year.”

Roger Havenith, Deputy Chief Executive of the EIF said: “Access to education is crucial for economic growth, competitiveness and social mobility. New student loans provided by leading Romanian partner FINS will unlock education opportunities and better career prospects for hundreds of students. Thanks to the EFSI Skills & Education Guarantee students will have streamlined access to loans and can repay once they get a job. Investing in education is investing for a better future.”

The European Investment Fund (EIF) and European Commission launched the EFSI Skills & Education Pilot guarantee facility to improve access to finance for individuals and organisations looking to invest in skills and education. The €50 million pilot scheme is supporting financing for students and learners, enterprises investing in the upskilling of their employees, and organizations supplying education and training.

Background information

About the 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.

About FINS

FINS is part of the EDUCATIVA Group and it is a non-banking financial institution, launched in 2019. FINS offers study loans of up to €25,000 for Bachelor's and Master's programs in Europe, including the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Romania. The assessment process for obtaining the FINS study loan is based exclusively on the personal and academic profile of the high school or college student, which enables them to secure a study loan without any prerequisites of employment, banking or income history, other guarantees or co-signers (*for study programs in the EU). For more information about FINS and their study loans, you can access https://hellofins.com/.

Press contacts:

EIF: Richard Willis, r.willis@eib.org, tel.: +352 43 79 82155 / Mobile: +352 621 55 57 58
Website: www.eib.org/press - Press Office: +352 4379 21000 – press@eib.org

FINS: Georgiana Malac, georgiana.malac@hellofins.com, +40732223671