The EU’s European Investment Bank (EIB) recently agreed to loan Credo Bank, a commercial bank in Georgia, GEL 28.8 million (USD 10 million) to expand its financing of micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). The floating-rate loan is synthetic, meaning it is denominated in euros but disbursed in Georgian lari. The loan is the first investment from EIB’s MSME Outreach Initiative for the Southern Caucasus region, which has a budget of EUR 100 million (USD 107 million).
The head of EIB’s activities in Georgia, Teresa Czerwinska, said, “The EIB is very glad to support Georgian MSMEs, providing more affordable capital so that they can continue to work, invest, strengthen the Georgian job market and accelerate its economic growth. This latest loan with our long-time partners at Credo Bank will help the country’s economy overcome some of the problems created by energy and food price shocks, inflation, the pandemic, climate change and regional conflicts.”
Credo Bank provides loans, insurance, deposit and remittance services to 460,000 businesses and individuals via approximately 80 service centers. The bank is owned by Germany-based Access Microfinance Holding, Switzerland-based responsAbility Investments, Netherlands-based Triodos Investment Management and the French government’s Proparco. During the last quarter of 2022, Credo Bank generated return on average assets of 1.7 percent and return on average equity of 16 percent, ending the period with GEL 2.2 billion (USD 822 million) in total assets.
EIB was founded in 1958 and works to promote priorities such as small and medium-sized enterprise and climate mitigation and adaptation with technical assistance, loans and financial guarantees. The institution issued EUR 95 billion (USD 102 billion) in financing during 2021.
By Ben Barba, Research Associate
Sources and Additional Resources
Credo Bank webpage
https://credobank.ge
Previous MicroCapital story on EIB
https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-eib-supporting-technical-assistance-for-banque-misr-on-financial-inclusion-for-smes-post-covid-growth-in-egypt/
Previous MicroCapital story on Credo Bank
https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-eib-lends-12m-to-credo-bank-for-microfinance-in-rural-georgia-to-offset-effects-of-covid-19-on-food-production/
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