Friday

29th Mar 2024

EIB in spotlight as leaders eye increased business lending

  • Lending to businesses has fallen in each of the last 12 months (Photo: Images_of_Money)

The European Investment Bank (EIB) was in the spotlight on Thursday (27 June) as EU leaders examined ways to boost lending to Europe's cash-strapped businesses.

The communique expected to be endorsed at the end of the summit urges the EIB to "implement its plan to increase its lending activity in the EU by 50% over 2013-2015."

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

It also called for greater cooperation between national development banks and the EIB to increase opportunities for co-lending.

Meanwhile, a joint paper presented at the summit by the European Commission and the EIB, suggested that merging EU structural funds together with EIB money could re-launch an EU securitisation market and leverage up to €100 billion. Representatives from the EU's executive arm and the EIB are expected to report back at the October summit.

EU officials are keen to use the EIB to ease the credit crunch faced by small businesses. Loans to businesses have contracted every month for the past year, with lending conditions particularly tight in the countries worst affected by the eurozone debt crisis and economic stagnation.

Member states agreed to provide an additional €10 billion of equity for the EIB in June 2012 as part of a so-called Growth and Jobs pact, with leaders claiming that this could be leveraged to facilitate €60 billion in extra lending.

The Luxembourg-based bank's lending operation in the EU totalled €44.7 billion in 2012, with the bank pledging to increase lending to €62 billion in 2013 followed by €60 billion in 2014 and 2015.

However, there remain doubts that the extra funds will lead to higher lending.

EIB boss Werner Hoyer, a former minister in Angela Merkel's German government, is reluctant to risk lending that could jeopardise the banks triple-AAA credit rating.

Prior to the summit talks, a European Council official voiced frustration at the bank's apparent reluctance to lend. "We feel they haven't used the money boost enough, so we're looking at new ways to increase risk sharing," he said.

For his part, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte told deputies in his national parliament on Wednesday (26 June) that retaining the EIB's credit rating was a priority for his government, warning that otherwise the bank would pay higher interest rates on the capital markets.

A German official said that concerns about the EIB's triple-AAA rating "are of course important," adding that reports on the activity of the Luxembourg-based bank indicated that "they use the money exactly as they are supposed to."

Carsten Brzeski, a senior economist for ING, described the 50 percent target as "highly ambitious."

"The biggest problem for this to fly is the credit rating of the EIB….up to now the EIB has been pretty reluctant to put on more risk," he told this website.

He also indicated that pooling structural funds and EIB money would be a better way to channel financial resources.

"Instead of increasing the lending capacity, moving towards more securitisation would probably work better. It would also bring the ECB on board," he said.

EU Investment Bank ramps up lending as crisis worsens

The European Investment Bank is rising to the challenge of the economic recession by increasing lending to countries, banks and companies, its president, Philippe Maystadt, said on Monday at the bank's annual press conference.

Opinion

Financialisation is on the march again

Over five years on from the collapse of Lehman Brothers, financialisation has never gone away – and now European taxpayer money is being sought to extend it further

'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told

Italian central banker Piero Cipollone in his first monetary policy speech since joining the ECB's board in November, said that the bank should be ready to "swiftly dial back our restrictive monetary policy stance."

Opinion

EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania

Among the largest sources of financing for energy transition of central and eastern European countries, the €60bn Modernisation Fund remains far from the public eye. And perhaps that's one reason it is often used for financing fossil gas projects.

Latest News

  1. Kenyan traders react angrily to proposed EU clothes ban
  2. Lawyer suing Frontex takes aim at 'antagonistic' judges
  3. Orban's Fidesz faces low-polling jitters ahead of EU election
  4. German bank freezes account of Jewish peace group
  5. EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania
  6. 'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told
  7. Moscow's terror attack, security and Gaza
  8. Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsThis autumn Europalia arts festival is all about GEORGIA!
  2. UNOPSFostering health system resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries
  3. European Citizen's InitiativeThe European Commission launches the ‘ImagineEU’ competition for secondary school students in the EU.
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste
  5. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  6. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us