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The South-East Enterprise Europe Network has welcomed a recent announcement that Bank of Scotland (Ireland) has partnered with the EIB to provide €100m funding support for SMEs. Bank of Scotland (Ireland) has agreed €50m of funding from the European Investment Bank (EIB) to provide funding support for SMEs. Bank of Scotland (Ireland) will match that in additional lending to form a €100m Business Investment Fund.
The €100m ‘Business Investment Fund’ will be used to support viable SME companies, both existing and new customers, in the Republic and Northern Ireland who are looking to invest capital in developing their business at terms of no less than two years. Customers will be assessed against both Bank of Scotland (Ireland) and EIB lending criteria. The benefits to SMEs in Ireland are two-fold: firstly, the availability of further credit for viable companies during these challenging times; and secondly, with the funding from the EIB, Bank of Scotland (Ireland) is able to provide more favourable rates. Commenting, Paul Cunningham, Head of Banking at Bank of Scotland (Ireland), said: “We are long term partners of the EIB, going back to our ICC Bank days, and this most recent agreement comes at a very opportune time for businesses who continue to need funding in these difficult trading conditions. Couple this with our pledge to provide €1 billion of funds to Irish customers, it demonstrates that we are for business.” Bank of Scotland (Ireland) will be the first bank in Ireland in 2009 to draw down funds from the EIB. The €50m portion from the EIB is additional to the €1 billion in funding for customers Bank of Scotland (Ireland) announced in December. Visit www.eib.org for further information. |
