EIF is part of the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group. It was founded in 1994 and it is owned by the EIB, the European Commission and a number of European public and private financial institutions. This combination of public and private shareholding gives EIF a dual focus: to support EU policy objectives, while acting as a market-oriented institution that delivers appropriate return on capital.
Mission
They are a specialist provider of risk finance to benefit small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) across Europe. They are part of the EIB Group. The shareholders are the European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Union, represented by the European Commission, and a wide range of public and private banks and financial institutions.
They carry out activities using either their own resources or those provided by the European Investment Bank, the European Commission, by EU Member States or other third parties.
By developing and offering targeted financial products to intermediaries, such as banks, guarantee and leasing companies, micro-credit providers and private equity funds, theyenhance SMEs access to finance.
Objectives
By taking SME risk, they pursu two main statutory objectives:
The central mission is to support Europe's small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) by helping them to access finance. To this end, they aim at satisfying existing and future market needs by designing innovative financial products addressed to partners (banks, guarantee, leasing and microfinance institutions, private equity and venture capital funds, among others), acting as financial intermediaries.
By offering an Integrated Risk Finance Product Range of SME finance to intermediaries, they complement the products offered by the European Investment Bank (EIB) with which they form the EIB Group.
