RRF Spain - Alternative Lending for Sustainable Development

The Spanish Ministry of Economy, Trade and Enterprise and the EIF have signed a new agreement to improve access to finance for businesses in Spain. Using EUR 200 million of financial resources from the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) and Spain’s Fondo de Resiliencia Autonómica (FRA), this new RRF Spain – Alternative Lending for Sustainable Development (ALSD) instrument aims to complement the traditional bank finance opportunities and diversity available funding options.

Managed by the EIF, the ALSD instrument is deployed through financial intermediaries (underlying funds) in the form of flexible medium-long term financing for growth and development leveraging debt financing instruments, including potential exposure to (hybrid-debt) equity financing.

Investment funds focusing on alternative lending have gained importance as an alternative asset class for European investors and a new financing source for European SMEs and mid-caps, in line with the EU objectives of the Capital Markets Union and the ambition to diversify SMEs’ and Small Mid-Caps’ financing sources.

Call documents are available here below for interested and eligible financial intermediaries.

More information on the RRF

The Resilience and Recovery Facility was established by Regulation (EU) 2021/241 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 February 2021, aiming to make European economies and societies more sustainable, resilient, and better prepared for the challenges and opportunities of the green and digital transitions.

As part of the RRF in Spain, the EIB Group (EIB and EIF) is implementing several financial instruments following the agreement between our organisations and the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Trade and Enterprise. The new ALSD is one of them – in addition to two instruments managed by the EIB.

Eligibility criteria                                                          

Financial intermediaries are eligible to apply if they meet the following criteria:

1. prove that they are not in any of the Exclusion Situations (Appendix IV);
2. comply with relevant international and EU standards and legislation, as applicable, on the prevention of money laundering, the fight against terrorism, tax fraud, tax evasion and artificial arrangements aiming at tax avoidance and shall not perform any illegal activities;
3. are not established in a Non-Compliant Jurisdiction unless the operation is physically implemented in the relevant Non-Compliant Jurisdiction and does not present any indication that it supports actions that contribute to Targeted Activities under the EIB Group NCJ Policy;
4. are not subject to Restrictive Measures (Annex II)