Croatia's Privredna banka Zagreb (PBZ), a member of the Intesa Sanpaolo Group, has secured a €100mn financing package from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to finance small businesses and Croatian exporters.

The package comprises a €50mn loan for on-lending to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

A further €50mn trade finance facility will also be extended to the bank via the EBRD’s trade facilitation programme. The funds will be used to finance Croatian exporters through pre-export financing and the financing of working capital required to conclude foreign trade contracts. According to the EBRD, the first trade transaction has already been agreed on.

The EBRD has a long-standing relationship with PBZ, having taken part in the final stage of PZB’s privatisation in 2002, and remaining a minority shareholder with a 21& stake.
The financing package is part of a joint initiative by global financial institutions to the credit crisis, and follows pledges made in February by the EBRD as well as the World Bank Group and the European Investment Bank to pump €24.5bn into SMEs via the banking system over the next two years.