The European institution has signed a €50m agreement with the Cooperative Central Bank, a Cyprus-based financial institution, with a view to supporting and financing local SMEs.This agreement is part of the EIB’s new policy which consists in focusing more on SMEs, especially in the economically weaker European regions.

According to one of the EIB's top staff, Mr Plutarchos Sakellaris, ‘in 2009 we [EIB] reached an unprecedented lending volume, as far as our general activity is concerned, as well as our financing in Cyprus which was double the average annual total over the last four years’.

Source: ANSAmed