2021: A year in review

With the pandemic showing no indication of waning, we spent the largest part of 2021 generating financial support for European SMEs for whom access to finance remained a very real challenge. We accelerated our financial relief across Europe tackling the pandemic head-on for a second year running and taking every possible measures to make financing more readily available for European businesses. This was driven mainly by our role in the rollout of the EIB Group’s European Guarantee Fund (EGF) initiative, absorbing market risk so that banks could lend more and funds invest further. This support has come over and above normal EIF activity, propelling our total commitments for 2021 to just over €30.5bn. Meanwhile we’ve embarked on our own transformational journey, adopting a more thematic approach to SMEs financing that is structured around Public Policy Goals (PPGs). This new configuration is entirely in tune with shifting priorities and in particular, the EIB Group’s Climate Bank Roadmap, the goals of the Paris Agreement, the EU’s agenda for the digital & green transitions and also demands from regional mandators and private investors.