The European Investment Fund (EIF) and Raiffeisen Bank dd Bosna i Hercegovina (RBBH) signed the guarantee agreement allowing the bank to increase its lending capacity to offer €12 million of new financing with improved terms and conditions to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The EIF's guarantee to RBBH is provided under the COSME Loan Guarantee Facility, as part of its coronavirus economic support package. This tool helps provide working capital to European SMEs for the recovery.

Thierry Breton, Commissioner for Internal market, said: “Small and medium-sized enterprises are heavily affected by the coronavirus pandemic. We reacted very quickly to provide them with immediate liquidity. Thanks to this rapid action, the coronavirus measure under the COSME Loan Guarantee Facility is already available in more than 20 European countries. With today's agreement SMEs in Bosnia and Herzegovina will benefit from the EU support for recovery as well.” 

More information

• Full press release
• COSME (the programme for the Competitiveness of Enterprises and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises) financial instruments