Launched in 2010, the European Progress Microfinance Facility (Progress Microfinance) has had the effect of increasing the availability of microcredit – loans below € 25,000 – aimed at setting up or developing small businesses. Progress Microfinance does not directly finance entrepreneurs but enables selected microcredit providers throughout the EU to facilitate lending by issuing guarantees, thereby sharing providers’ potential risk of loss and providing funding to increase microcredit lending.

Microcredit providers may be private or public banks, non-bank microfinance institutions and not-for-profit microcredit providers. The conditions for microloans to entrepreneurs – amount, duration, interest rates and fees, timeframe to obtain a loan – depend on the particular microcredit provider.

Progress Microfinance can be accessed by self-employed persons or by setting up/ developing a microenterprise (an enterprise with fewer than 10 employees), particularly a social enterprise. Unemployed persons and other individuals taking time out of the labour market can also benefit from the Progress Microfinance facility.

This facility is supported by the European Commission and the European Investment Bank and is managed by the European Investment Fund.

Impetus Europe Consulting Group Ltd
e-mail: info@impetuseurope.com
www.impetuseurope.com