Intesa Sanpaolo, an Italian bank with operations in 12 countries in Europe and North Africa, recently expanded a program for small and medium-sized enterprises to its subsidiary banks in Albania, Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia. The program supports SMEs with greater access to finance and cross-border services. In other countries where Intesa Sanpaolo has rolled out this effort, “Just a few months after launch, the project… has achieved results far in excess of the targets set, with more than 600 customers involved and over [USD 270 million] in financing granted,” said Giuseppe Ferraro, Head of the Corporate & SME Department of Intesa Sanpaolo's International Subsidiary Banks Division.

This transaction, which is funded by the EU, will flow to the local unit of Italy's Unicredit Group. SMEs in Bosnia and Herzegovina that access the funds will be eligible for grants of up to 15% of their sub-loan value upon completion of their projects. The goal of the projects is for the SMEs to reach "the highest EU climate, environmental protection and other standards." EBRD will issue the wholesale loan to UniCredit Bank d.d. Mostar.