• €1 billion in new financing will support Spanish SMEs and mid-caps through a securitisation led by EIB Group and Santander.
• €200 million earmarked for near-zero-emission building projects and €70 million to promote women-led enterprises.
• Deal strengthens EU capital-markets union and expands sustainable finance access for small businesses.

EIB–Santander partnership expands SME financing

The European Investment Bank (EIB) Group and Banco Santander have launched a €1.08 billion ($1.08 billion) financing package to bolster the competitiveness of small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Spain and accelerate their transition to a greener and more inclusive economy. The initiative is channelled through a €569.5 million securitisation, in which both the EIB and its subsidiary, the European Investment Fund (EIF), are major investors.

The EIB will inject €309.5 million, while the EIF contributes €260 million, of which €200 million is backed by a bilateral guarantee from ING. Combined, the operation unlocks over €1 billion in new credit that Santander will on-lend to Spanish businesses across sectors from construction to manufacturing and services. Private investors have also joined the deal, expanding its reach within Spain’s corporate lending market.

Targeted green and social investment

At the core of the partnership are measures to strengthen Spain’s low-carbon building stock and gender diversity in business ownership. About €200 million of the new lending is reserved for SMEs and mid-caps developing or retrofitting near-zero-emission buildings. The funds will help finance energy-efficient materials, low-carbon heating and cooling systems, and digitalised construction practices that comply with the EU taxonomy for sustainable activities.

A further €70 million will be dedicated to companies led or majority-owned by women, part of the EIB Group’s broader agenda to expand access to finance for female entrepreneurs and executives. Spain’s share of women-owned SMEs remains below the EU average, and EIB officials describe the financing as a step toward narrowing that gap while boosting innovation and job creation.

Strengthening Europe’s capital-markets union

Beyond its domestic footprint, the transaction contributes to one of the EIB Group’s long-term policy priorities: deepening the EU capital-markets union through securitisation as a funding tool. By pooling SME loans into tradeable instruments, the operation releases balance-sheet capacity for Santander and encourages private-sector participation in sustainable lending.

EIB executives said securitisation remains an essential mechanism for mobilising private capital toward the EU’s climate and cohesion goals, particularly in economies where bank lending is the dominant source of SME finance. The structure also diversifies risk exposure, making it easier for financial institutions to extend credit to high-impact green projects that might otherwise face barriers due to perceived risk.

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Boosting competitiveness and cohesion

For Spain, where SMEs account for roughly 99 percent of businesses and two-thirds of employment, access to affordable financing is critical to maintaining competitiveness during the energy and digital transitions. The operation supports enterprises investing in productivity upgrades, renewable integration, and sustainable construction, while aligning with the EIB Group’s strategic pillars of climate action, environmental sustainability, and social and territorial cohesion.

EIB representatives described the deal as part of a broader suite of interventions that blend public and private financing to meet the EU’s 2030 climate targets. Santander, one of Europe’s largest commercial lenders, has already increased its green-lending portfolio in Spain to more than €25 billion since 2020 and plans to expand its offerings in energy efficiency, mobility, and circular-economy projects.

Broader implications for sustainable finance

The EIB Group’s partnership with Santander reinforces a model increasingly central to Europe’s sustainable-finance architecture—linking capital-market innovation with real-economy investment. By combining climate-aligned lending, gender-equity financing, and securitisation, the operation demonstrates how traditional banking mechanisms can be retooled to advance the EU’s green-transition agenda while preserving financial stability.

For investors and policymakers, the transaction illustrates growing momentum behind blended-finance approaches designed to scale the continent’s sustainability funding gap, estimated by the European Commission at over €700 billion annually through 2030.

If successfully replicated across other markets, such securitisation-backed programmes could extend the reach of sustainable credit well beyond large corporates—embedding ESG principles at the foundation of Europe’s small-business economy.

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