NEFI members promote access to finance for SMEs in Europe

The Network of European Financial Institutions for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (NEFI), which was founded in 1999, consists currently of 19 financial institutions from 18 European Union member states and UK. In 2025, NEFI members actively supported and financed more than 311.000 SMEs all over Europe with more than € 77,8 billion of financing mainly in the form of loans and guarantees.

how we work

NEFI has two statutory bodies: The management of all partners constitute the High Level Meeting (HLM) and specialists in SME financing are represented in the Permanent Working Group (PWG), the main working body which meets at least four times per year. All NEFI activities are supported by the Contact Point in Brussels.

The main task of the HLM

  • Deciding on the prospective strategic focus
  • Mandating of future activities and new tasks for NEFI

The main task of the PWG

  • Making NEFI's expertise in financing SMEs known and available in Europe
  • Assisting EU-Institutions in developing efficient legislative solutions for SME support
  • Coordination of NEFI's activities
  • Mutual exchange of best practices and a platform for benchmarking

Honorary President and NEFI Presidency

The NEFI Presidency is held by the institution hosting the High-Level Meeting and represented by its designated high-level representative as Honorary President. The role is honorary and representative, supporting NEFI’s visibility and chairing the High-Level Meeting.

From 1 October 2026, the NEFI Honorary President is Ms. Ismini Papakirillou, CEO of the Hellenic Development Bank (HDB):

  • Ismini Papakirillou is the Chief Executive Officer of Hellenic Development Bank, a position she holds since February 2024. Previously she worked for the European Investment Fund (EIF), part of the European Investment Bank Group, covering European Commission mandates across a range of different thematics. From 2010 to 2019 she worked for the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private investing arm of the World Bank, handling direct investments across a range of financial instruments, sectors and geographies. Prior to IFC she worked for three years as a portfolio manager for Global Tactical Asset Allocation strategies at APG Investments, one of the largest institutional investors in Europe. She has also worked in Paris and Athens covering investments in industry and private equity. She has degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the London School of Economics (LSE).

Topics of interest

NEFI pursues the objective of following the information of financial, political and legal developments and measures adopted by the European Institutions in the fields of European economic and financial policies which are relevant for promotional financial institutions focussing on the facilitation of SMEs' access to finance. NEFI serves as a contact for the European Institutions providing know-how and information on all promotional banking issues.

Ultimately, NEFI assembles the common specific interests of its members, which result from their particular legal status and function as public financial institutions, and represents them if necessary vis-à-vis the European Union, the press and the general public.

More specifically NEFI is currently concentrating on the following topics:

  • The new legislative proposals for the future programming periods
  • Sustainable finance
  • Promoting Financial Instruments as tools to facilitate SMEs access to finance
  • Innovation finance