News from 04-12-2013

ICO signs a EUR 300 million loan with CEB

Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO) and the Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB) signed a Framework Loan Agreement for a EUR 300 million loan aimed at financing eligible productive investment projects and related working capital requirements in SMEs. 

The CEB loan will be used by ICO to provide financing – through accredited financial intermediaries such as commercial banks, savings banks and leasing companies – for the acquisition by SMEs of fixed assets/productive equipment such as office and production premises, installations, machinery and equipment and vehicles.

As Spain’s public development financial institution, ICO plays a key role in supporting access to medium and long-term financing for Spanish SMEs. In the current difficult context in Spain, this substantial loan – representing the second co-operation framework between ICO and the CEB – will especially target the lower segment of the Spanish SME market, thereby contributing to its ability to grow and to create and/or preserve jobs.

The Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB) is a multilateral development bank with a social vocation. Established on 16 April 1956 in order to bring solutions to the problems of refugees, its scope of action has progressively widened to other sectors of action directly contributing to strengthening social cohesion in Europe.

The CEB represents a major instrument of the policy of solidarity in Europe, in order to help its 41 Member States achieve sustainable and equitable growth: it thus participates in financing social projects, responds to emergency situations and, in so doing, contributes to improving the living conditions of the most disadvantaged population groups.

Source: CEB