The European Investment Fund (EIF) and UniCredit Bank Austria have signed RSI guarantee agreements to support lending to innovative small and medium-sized enterprises. The initiative is funded by the European Commission and the subsidiaries of UniCredit in Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia and Hungary will participate in it.

UniCredit is the first banking group closing an umbrella structure within the Risk Sharing Instrument (RSI). This instrument is an initiative in which individual agreements are linked with each other and coordinated by one entity of such group, in this case UniCredit Bank Austria.

The agreements signed allow the UniCredit banks to provide loans to small and medium enterprises with a 50% guarantee provided by the EIF and access to a total of EUR 60mn. This enables UniCredit banks to offer additional financing at favourable conditions.

The agreements with the European Investment Fund will bring financing across the EU under this initiative to well above EUR 3.2 bn.

Commenting on the signing, EIF Director of Guarantees, Securitisation and Microfinance, Alessandro Tappi said: “The EIF is pleased to be signing the first multi-country Risk Sharing Instrument (RSI) Umbrella Facility in these five countries, under a DG Research and Innovation FP7 programme in support of innovative small and medium sized enterprises with UniCredit Bank Austria. The facility will ensure that much needed finance will be quickly channelled to a number of innovation driven businesses in Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia.”

"Without doubt SMEs are the backbone of European economies. The benefit for SMEs from the first multi-country Risk Sharing Instrument Umbrella Facility is clear: they will profit from even more attractive terms as we fully pass the guarantee-related cost advantages on to our customers. We are happy to put at work our unique network in Europe to provide this favorable financing throughout five Central Eastern European countries in total”, said Gianfranco Bisagni, Head of CEE Corporate and Investment Banking at UniCredit Bank Austria.

The aim of the RSI Facility is to encourage banks to lend to SMEs and small mid-caps with fewer than 500 employees in need of investment financing and/or operating capital to support research, development and innovation activities, with EU financial support.

About Risk-Sharing Instrument (RSI) under FP7

The RSI facility aims to encourage banks to provide loans of up to €7.5 million to SMEs and small mid-caps undertaking research, development or innovation, and seeking finance for investments and/or working capital. The RSI is a joint initiative of the EIF, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Commission. It is supported by the European Union under the Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7) and uses EIF's risk-taking capacity. RSI complements the existing Risk Sharing Finance Facility (RSFF), managed by the EIB.

About the EIF

The European Investment Fund's (EIF) central mission is to support Europe's micro, small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) by helping them to access finance. In this role, EIF fosters EU objectives in support of innovation, research and development, entrepreneurship, growth, and employment. EIF’s guarantees loan portfolio totalled over EUR 5.6bn in over 300 operations at end 2013, positioning it as a major European SME guarantees actor and a leading micro-finance guarantor.

About UniCredit Bank Austria

UniCredit Bank Austria has been a member of UniCredit, one of the largest European banking groups, since 2005. The bank has one of the strongest capital bases among the large banks in Austria. The Tier 1 capital ratio (based on all risks) improved to 11.2 per cent as of 31 March 2014. Total assets of Bank Austria as at 31 March 2014 amounted to EUR 179.2 billion.

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