Financial intermediaries and ESIF financial instruments – Working with managing authorities on loan and guarantee instruments

On 25 and 26 June 2018 in Brussels, the European Commission, Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO), supported by the European Investment Bank, organised the fi-compass event ‘Financial intermediaries and ESIF financial instruments - working with managing authorities on loan and guarantee instruments’.

The event attracted nearly 100 delegates from 20 Member States, including representatives from ESIF managing authorities, financial intermediaries, NPBIs and private sector financial institutions and other ESIF stakeholders, willing to learn and share experience about implementation of debt instruments in the 2014-2020 programming period.

The two-day event was opened by Rachel Lancry Beaumont, Deputy Head of Unit, Policy Directorate, DG for Regional and Urban Policy of European Commission, who underlined that fi-compass will in the future devote more resources to sharing of experiences and know-how as regards financial instruments implementation, responding to needs voiced by stakeholders.

Day 1 opened with a ‘Get-to-know and networking session’, which involved speakers and participants with the support of facilitators from European Investment Bank and fi-compass experts. After this, Robert Pernetta, Financial Instrument Advisor, European Investment Bank, illustrated key messages of an EU-wide stocktaking study of ex-ante assessments for undertaken to date to support the use of financial instruments using ERDF and CF in the 2014-2020 programming period. During the presentation, participants heard about the initial findings of the study, and other recent developments concerning ESIF financial instruments.

Day 2 was opened by Cathy Smith, fi-compass expert and moderator of the day.

The morning session focused on three case studies from Italy, Lithuania and Hungary, where experts directly involved in the implementation of financial instruments reported on their practical experiences and lessons learned. 

The first of the three case studies was presented by Alessandro Apa, Senior Fund & Structuring Officer, European Investment Bank (fund manager), Maurizio Guglielmini, Key Financial Manager, RIF team, Equiter, Italy (financial intermediary) and Pier Paolo Proietti, Head of Product Management Area, Finance Directorate for Development, Mediocredito Centrale S.p.A., Italy (financial intermediary). The speakers who are all directly involved in the ERDF funded financial instrument for RDI support (TO 1), described the challenges of financing RDI through ERDF financial instruments and the lessons learnt about how to deploy a debt instrument to support research, development and innovation. Bruno Robino of the fi-compass team, stimulated the Q&A session following the presentations. Participants used the opportunity to exchange with the speakers and to discuss technical questions.

After this, Junona Bumelytė, Funds Officer, European Investment Bank (fund manager) and Mindaugas Rudys, Director of Department for Development of Financial Services, Šiaulių Bankas, Lithuania (financial intermediary) shared with participants first-hand insights into their daily work and practical challenges of implementing debt instruments supporting energy efficiency in 2014-2020. The session focused on key success factors for a good institutional collaboration. The facilitator was Frank Lee of the fi-compass team, and in the Q&A session following the presentations participants used the opportunity to discuss with the speakers technical and financial aspects.

Following this Gábor Soós, Legal advisor, EU Financial Instruments Department, MFB Hungarian Development Bank and Csaba Zsarnóci, Advisor to the Chairman for EU Affairs, OTP Bank, Hungary, directly involved in the implementation of the ERDF funded financial instruments for SME support (TO 3) in the 2014-2020 programming period, described their collaboration in the different life cycle phases of the financial instrument, highlighting the essential practical aspects and key challenges in the process. Speakers also shared with participants the lessons learnt from implementing debt financial instruments supporting SMEs, including how grant and loan support could be combined. Miglena Dobreva of the fi-compass team, facilitated the Q&A session and peer-to-peer discussion.

The afternoon of day 2 included four parallel discussion sessions on the following themes:

• Discussion session A - TO 1, Strengthening research, technological development and innovation;
• Discussion session B - TO 3, Enhancing the competitiveness of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs);
• Discussion session C - TO 4, Supporting the shift towards a low-carbon economy in all sectors;
• Discussion session D - Horizontal topics, How to foster collaboration between financial intermediaries and managing authorities.

The format of each session, called "fishbowl", stimulated interest from participants. Facilitators from the fi-compass team supported participants in a detailed and interactive discussion of the four topics.

In the plenary session ‘IFIs, NPBIs and other financial institutions implementing ESIF loan and guarantee instruments’, Josip Grgić, EU Funds and Financial Instruments Specialist, Croatian Bank for Reconstruction and Development (HBOR), Croatia, Gábor Soós, Legal advisor, EU Financial Instruments Department, MFB Hungarian Development Bank, Götz von Thadden, Head of Unit, Financial Instruments Baltic Sea and Northern Europe (BSNE-1), European Investment Bank, Piotr Stołowski, Head of Division Northern & Central Eastern Europe, Mandate Management – Debt, European Investment Fund, discussed about implementation of ESIF financial instruments in 2014-2020. This included an exchange on the roles of these stakeholders in the deployment of financial instruments, taking into consideration the different implementation options. At the end, the facilitator Cathy Smith, fi-compass expert, stimulated question and answer (Q&A) session which participants used to gain further information from the speakers about the session topic.

During the closing remarks, Rachel Lancry Beaumont from DG REGIO highlighted the importance of the use of financial instruments offered in the ESIF framework in the 2014-2020 programming period, stressing that financial instruments should play an increasingly significant role in the implementation of the EU Cohesion Policy by continuing to replace grants with financial instruments or combination of both.