Nordea introduces a new range of guaranteed lending solutions to SMEs in Finland, Sweden and Denmark together with the European Investment Fund under its new guarantee programme, the European Guarantee Fund (EGF).
An agreement signed by Nordea and the European Investment Fund will provide Nordea with EUR 700 million in guarantee capacity for 2021. The guarantee programme enables Nordea to offer EUR 1 billion of new financing to its customers on more favorable terms.
“At Nordea Business Banking, we want to contribute actively to initiatives supporting SMEs that are driving economic recovery and fuelling growth. This is yet another tool for us to support our customers. We are proud to have been approved by the European Investment Fund to take part in the implementation of this European initiative and generate further financial support to relevant SMEs in Finland, Denmark and Sweden,” says Nina Arkilahti, Head of Business Banking.
The European Guarantee Fund was recently founded by the European Investment Bank Group (comprising the EIB and the EIF) to ensure that SMEs in EU member states with sustainable business plans are provided with liquidity to overcome COVID-19-related adversities and that healthy businesses are supported to grow.
“We’re very happy to partner with Nordea for this transaction under the new European Guarantee Fund,” says EIF Chief Executive Alain Godard. “The EGF is a pan-European tool, part of the EU’s recovery package, that will allow us to heavily increase our support for small businesses, in the Nordics and other EU member states. Businesses have suffered massively over the last year and we’re thankful that we can build on our partnership with Nordea to channel much needed financing to them.”
The European Guarantee Fund programme supplements Nordea’s lending capacity – which is already very strong – as well as lending solutions for SMEs. “In the coming weeks, Nordea will start reaching out to relevant customers with healthy business plans and present this additional opportunity to improve their liquidity situation on favorable and safe terms. We will ensure that our advice and support are available to our customers in these challenging times,” says Nina Arkilahti.
Nordea is the largest corporate bank in the Nordics with around 500,000 corporate customers and lending volumes of around EUR 85 billion.
