The European Investment Bank (EIB) recently approved a EUR 100 million loan for Romania’s state owned CEC Bank to support financing for local small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as well as local authorities, the international financial institution announced on Thursday.

“For EIB, this sum, of EUR 100 million, is the largest ever granted to a Romanian bank. BRD received a similar loan in the past, but this is the maximum that EIB ever gave to a Romanian bank,” said Mihai Tanasescu, vice president of EIB responsible for Romania, quoted by Mediafax.

He added that this loan should help support SMEs, which “represent the backbone of Romania’s economy both in terms of new jobs creation, as well as in terms of economic growth”.

Last year, CEC Bank also received a EUR 45 million loan from EIB, which it used to finance more than 100 projects in sectors such as manufacturing, agriculture, commerce, services, constructions and green energy.

Since the beginning of this year, EIB also granted a total of EUR 145 million to Garanti Bank, UniCredit Leasing and BCR Leasing also for financing SMEs. Last year, local financial institutions granted loans totaling EUR 174 million to local SMEs, from EIB sources.

The financial institution aims to reach EUR 600 million financings for Romania by the end of this year and says that next year it will focus more on the energetic sector, according to Tanasescu.

CEC Bank is the largest state-owned bank in Romania and one of the top five banks in Romania, with total assets of more than EUR 6 billion at the end of last year.

editor@romania-insider.com