The European Investment Bank (EIB) and MicroBank are joining forces once again to support young entrepreneurs who want to turn their ideas into business. The EIB has granted MicroBank a EUR 30 million loan for financing microcredits in Spain. MicroBank will match this sum with the same amount, meaning that a total of EUR 60 million will be made available to entrepreneurs and small businesses. The agreement was signed in Madrid today by EIB Vice-President Román Escolano and MicroBank Chairman Antonio Vila.
This loan is the second instalment of a EUR 100 million agreement designed to ease the financing of small business projects that the EIB signed with MicroBank in late 2016. The first EUR 30 million tranche of this credit line has already benefited more than 2,500 small businesses and self-employed workers, who accessed it to finance their investments.
To date, the EU bank and MicroBank have signed three agreements totalling EUR 260 million to promote access to long-term funding on favourable terms for the self-employed with the aim of creating jobs, especially for young people. The previous EUR 100 million agreement signed in 2015 served to finance more than 9,500 micro firms. 30% of beneficiaries launched start-ups thanks to this credit line.
The average amount of the microcredits granted by MicroBank is around EUR 12 000 and the institution does not require any collateral for its operations.
At the signing ceremony in Madrid, EIB Vice-President Román Escolano said: “The operation signed today is a clear demonstration of the EIB's efforts to boost the Spanish economy by supporting job creation for young people. It is also a good example of how the EIB’s favourable lending conditions can be passed on to small-scale entrepreneurs. Thanks to this agreement with MicroBank we will be able to strengthen our support for the small businesses that are key to continuing to generate wealth in the Spanish economy’’.
Signing the agreement, MicroBank Chairman Antonio Vila stressed that “this agreement represents a further step in the EIB’s ongoing support for MicroBank”. He went on to say that “the projects that we finance frequently start life as self-employment initiatives and turn into successful firms creating jobs for other people”.
Photographer: Mercedes Landete ©EIB
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