The European Investment Bank (EIB) has extended a €50mn credit facility to Piraeus Bank of Greece.

The money will be used to support SMEs in Greece’s manufacturing, tourism and service industries.

It’s the second such line of credit to be extended as part of the guarantee fund for Greek SMEs, an initiative arranged by the Greek government, the European Commission and the EIB to boost lending to SMEs.

The initiative will eventually guarantee loans made by the EIB to Greek banks totalling €1bn. In December 2012, the EIB gave a loan of €100mn to Eurobank, meaning that so far, the scheme has facilitated loans totalling €150mn.

The EIB’s vice-president for Greece Dario Scannapieco says: “When added to the €140mnin loans signed with Alpha Bank and those made with Ethniki Bank (€250mn) and PanCretan Bank (€50mn) in the last three weeks, this brings new EIB support for Greek SMEs to a total of €590mn.”