The European Investment Fund (EIF) and Raiffeisenbank (Bulgaria) EAD signed a new guarantee agreement for additional €130 million under the European Union’s (EU) programme COSME. The scheme is part of the EU's policy to overcome the economic crisis caused by COVID-19.

The COSME COVID-19 guarantee agreement is an instrument from which Bulgarian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with working capital needs will be able to benefit from to overcome the liquidity tensions triggered by current economic environment.

Under the agreement, SMEs will be able to access working capital financing, backed by an 80% guarantee provided by the EIF on each new loan up to a maximum amount, per loan, of € 150,000.

Earlier this year the EIF and Raiffeisenbank (Bulgaria) signed an increase of €18 million of the existing guarantee under the EU’s program InnovFin for innovative companies also aiming at supporting such companies through the COVID-19 crisis. Thus, the EIF has committed in total about €150 million of support to Bulgarian businesses to mitigate the COVID-19 economic impact.