EIF and Banca Etica Unlock €200 Million for Ethical Investments in Italy and Spain

EIF and Banca Etica Unlock €200 Million for Ethical Investments in Italy and Spain

(IN BRIEF) The European Investment Fund (EIF) and Banca Etica have signed a €164 million guarantee agreement, supported by InvestEU, to unlock over €200 million in investments across Italy and Spain. This initiative will provide more than 1,000 social enterprises, microenterprises, SMEs, and small mid-caps with favorable loans to support socially oriented, sustainable, and community-focused projects. The collaboration builds on a previous €60 million agreement and underscores a shared commitment to ethical finance and inclusive economic growth, offering financing options such as unsecured loans, credit lines, and educational loans.

(PRESS RELEASE) LUXEMBOURG, 28-Nov-2024 — /EuropaWire/ — The European Investment Fund (EIF), a key component of the EIB Group, has partnered with Banca Etica to facilitate over €200 million in investments aimed at fostering sustainable and socially inclusive growth in Italy and Spain. Announced during the presentation of the 7th Report on Ethical Finance in Europe in Madrid, the agreement was unveiled by EIB Vice-President Gelsomina Vigliotti and Banca Etica Chair Anna Fasano.

Through the InvestEU-supported initiative, the EIF will provide Banca Etica with €164 million in guarantees, enabling the bank to offer loans on favorable terms to more than 1,000 beneficiaries. These include social enterprises, microenterprises, small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs), and small mid-cap companies. The financing will prioritize projects with strong social and environmental impacts, as well as those advancing cultural, creative, and educational initiatives.

The collaboration builds on a previous €60 million agreement signed in July 2024, which focused on enhancing labor market integration, supporting refugee services, empowering women-led businesses, and promoting development in cohesion regions. Together, these initiatives underline a shared commitment to ethical finance and inclusive economic development.

EIB Vice-President Gelsomina Vigliotti emphasized the significance of this partnership, stating, “This agreement strengthens our efforts to create an economy centered on people and social inclusion, offering accessible financing that empowers entrepreneurs to invest in their future and contribute to a fairer economic ecosystem.”

Banca Etica Chair Anna Fasano highlighted the value of the partnership, saying, “This synergy with the EIF and EIB reflects the recognition of our expertise in financing the social economy. It allows us to channel additional resources into businesses that positively impact communities, furthering our mission to support ethical and sustainable growth.”

The financing available under this agreement includes unsecured loans, short-term credit lines, invoice advances, and guarantees. Additionally, individuals can access loans for educational and training purposes, underscoring the initiative’s wide-reaching impact.

For more details, visit the dedicated page on the Banca Etica website.

Background information

The European Investment Fund (EIF) is part of the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group. Its central mission is to support Europe’s micro, small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) by helping them to access finance and venture capital. The EIF is also active in supporting climate and infrastructure fund investments with a strong focus on environmental sustainability. In this role, the EIF pursues the objectives of the European Union to support innovation, research and development, entrepreneurship, growth and employment.

The EIF in Italy: The EIF has signed transactions totalling over €17 billion since it began operating in Italy in 1996, helping to support more than €98 billion of investment in the real economy. EIF financing has reached over 400 000 Italian companies, safeguarding more than 2.3 million jobs across the country.

The InvestEU programme provides the European Union with vital long-term funding by leveraging substantial private and public funds in support of a sustainable recovery. It also helps to crowd in private investment for the European Union’s strategic priorities such as the European Green Deal and the digital transition. The InvestEU programme brings together under one roof the multitude of EU financial instruments currently available to support investment in the European Union, making funding for investment projects simpler, more efficient and more flexible. InvestEU has three components: the InvestEU Fund, the InvestEU Advisory Hub and the InvestEU Portal. The InvestEU Fund is deployed through financial partners that invest in projects using the EU budget guarantee of €26.2 billion. The entire budget guarantee will back the investment projects of the implementing partners, increasing their risk-bearing capacity and mobilising at least €372 billion in additional investment.

Banca Etica is the first and so far the only Italian bank entirely dedicated to ethical finance, operating for 25 years throughout the country via a network of branches and agents and via home and mobile banking services. It manages the savings of responsible organisations and individuals, using them to finance projects supporting collective well-being. It currently has more than 48 000 members, €92 million in share capital, savings holdings of almost €2.5 billion and loans of around €1.2 billion in support of the initiatives of organisations, families and companies in the areas of social cooperation and innovation, international cooperation, culture and quality of life, environmental conservation, responsible tourism, organic farming, the right of housing and law. Banca Etica is part of the main international ethical finance networks: Global Alliance for Banking on Values (GABV) and European Federation of Ethical and Alternative Banks and Financiers (FEBEA). The Banca Etica Group includes Etica Sgr, an asset management company that exclusively provides ethical mutual funds, Fondazione Finanza Etica, which promotes study and awareness-raising initiatives on critical finance education, and CreSud, which offers financial resources and assistance to microfinance organisations, fair and sustainable trade producers, associations and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Latin America, Africa and Asia.

Media Contacts:

EIB Group

Lorenzo Squintani, l.squintani@eib.org, tel.: +39 366 57 90 312

Banca Etica

Chiara Bannella cbannella@bancaetica.com

Corrado Fontana cfontana@bancaetica.com

SOURCE: European Investment Fund