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Strengthening Poland’s banking sector
EBRD provides loan to Bank Współpracy Europejskiej
The EBRD is providing Bank Współpracy Europejskiej (BWE) with a Złoty-denominated credit line up to €10 million equivalent for on-lending to local micro, small and medium sized enterprises.
In addition to supporting the growth of the Polish business sector, the loan will also strengthen BWE, a regional bank which has identified the local micro and small business sector as its key target area.
The loan comes under the EU/EBRD Preparatory Action Plan, a programme designed to target other than first-tier banks, which so far have not been eligible to internationally funded framework agreements. Although the Polish banking sector has grown rapidly in recent years and is seen as well developed in corporate banking, micro and small enterprises remain underserved and do not easily find tailor-made financial products.
The loan will be complemented with up to €925,000 Technical Cooperation funds provided by the European Union. These financial resources will be used for implementing a new IT system and for staff training and improvement of the Bank’s credit processes.
Peter Reiniger, EBRD Business Group Director for Central Europe, said the loan demonstrated clearly the contribution the Bank could still make to Poland. “It has always been our job to assist in developing new approaches and with the loan to BWE we are doing this in two ways: strengthening a local bank and the small business sector. There is still a shortage of funding for new banking initiatives in Poland.”
Mariusz Karpinski, CEO of BWE, said „One of the two main pillars of our new strategy is the development of comprehensive services for micro and small enterprises. These enterprises develop very quickly and need financing, and we will prepare a comprehensive offer for them. The EBRD loan is an important element for us as we start of our activities in this segment.”
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