New EU credit guarantee program at ProCredit Bank – Another EUR 75 million for financing SMEs in Serbia

The European Investment Fund (EIF) has signed an agreement on cooperation with five banks in Serbia which will implement the guarantee scheme “EU for Serbia – Financing for SMEs”. Of the total amount available, equaling EUR 180 million, ProCredit Bank, as one of the leaders in financing SMEs, will be put in charge of as much as EUR 75 million.

Thanks to this agreement on cooperation, the Western Balkans Enterprise Development & Innovation Facility (WB EDIF) will enable ProCredit Bank to lend EUR 75 million to SMEs through the said guarantee scheme in the upcoming period. This will provide SMEs with easier access to finance with lower security requests and lower interest rates compared to the bank’s standard credits.

– ProCredit Bank is very proud of the fact that it has been recognized by the EIF and the Government of Serbia as a leader in the financing of SMEs. This means that, in the upcoming period, our bank alone will handle nearly 50% of the funds available. We plan to use these funds to further facilitate access to finance for SMEs, which is often the biggest obstacle to their development – said Ivan Smiljkovic, a member of the Executive Board of ProCredit Bank.

According to him, this guarantee scheme will enable the financing of projects, primarily for those companies which are ready to innovate, upgrade their technological processes and implement new products and services, and which are not eligible for standard credits.

– In the past period, we have lent more than EUR 160 million through guarantee schemes (InnovFin and WBEDIF 2017), confirming our leading position in financing innovative SMEs – Smiljkovic emphasized.