Are you a microfinance institution? Are you a social enterprise finance provider, an incubator or a business accelerator offering support to social enterprises and you wish to expand your services to provide financial support? Are you looking to improve your capacity to make the most of InvestEU Fund resources and enhance the access to finance of individuals, micro and social enterprises?
Under the Social Inclusive Finance Technical Assistance (SIFTA), the EIB is providing targeted capacity building services for microfinance and social enterprise finance providers1 in the form of tailored training, workshops, peer-to-peer exchanges and study visits on a wide range of topics related to financing micro and social enterprises. It also provides rating, assessment and evaluation services to such providers.
In view of the on-going exercise aimed at revising and updating the European Code of Good Conduct for Microcredit Provision (the Code), microfinance institutions requesting services in connection with the Code (i.e. evaluation, renewals and training on the Code) will be assessed in accordance with the new Code framework entering into force in 2027. From 2027 onwards, all microfinance institutions will be assessed exclusively in accordance with the new Code.
Our services
- Services open to all Microfinance and Social Enterprises finance providers):
- Workshops to exchange practices and tools among microfinance and social enterprise finance providers.
- Analytical support provide general guidance on how to apply for financing
- Services tailored to specific needs of beneficiaries (who need to send a request):
- Targeted capacity building and technical assistance services through a consortium of service providers consisting of Frankfurt School of Finance & Management GmbH, together with the European Microfinance Network and the Microfinance Centre:
- Tailored trainings to provide knowledge and skills to the staff working at MF/SE providers targeting areas of improvement.
- Investment readiness trainings to prepare providers for taking on investments, loans, grants, or guarantees under InvestEU
- Training/coaching on the implementation of the Code to train Microfinance providers on the implementation of the European Code of Good Conduct for Microcredit Provision (the Code)
- Analytical support provide general guidance on how to apply for financing
- Peer-to-peer training and study visits to learn from experiences and practices of other microfinance/social enterprise finance providers
- Portfolio analysis and pipeline building to support providers in building portfolios and evaluation of associated risks.
- Rating, assessments and code evaluation services: through a specialised service provider, Microfinanza Rating Srl:
- Institutional Assessments consist of a detailed analysis of an institution’s internal policies and procedures and comparison with internationally recognised best practices in microfinance and social entrepreneurship fields.
- Institutional Ratings provide an opinion on the long-term viability of a finance provider through an evaluation based on the internal processes, the risk management and its performance.
- Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Assessments provide an opinion on the capacity of a finance provider to put its mission into practice and achieve its social and environmental goals.
- Impact Assessments focus on measuring the impact that MF or SE finance providers have on the ends-clients. Impact Assessment is an external, reliable and independent validation of the changes generated by the SIFTA beneficiary institutions’ activities.
- Evaluation of the implementation of the European Code of Good Conduct for Microcredit Provision: certifies that a given MF institution complies with the Code.
- Renewal of the European Code of Good Conduct for Microcredit Provision: this service aims at providing a renewal of the certifications of the Code certification, which typically has validity of four years.
- Targeted capacity building and technical assistance services through a consortium of service providers consisting of Frankfurt School of Finance & Management GmbH, together with the European Microfinance Network and the Microfinance Centre:
Sectors covered
Microfinance and social enterprise finance.
Who benefits
Financial intermediaries registered in the EU27:
- Microfinance Providers (Microfinance Institutions, Licensed Banks, Guarantee granting entities, Fintech,…)
- Social Enterprises finance providers (Incubators, Accelerators, Private or Public Investment Funds,…)
Request support
- To find out more about the SIFTA services offered by the EIB, please send an email to sifta@eib.org
- If you are a target beneficiary and would like to request SIFTA services, please send an email to sifta@eib.org
More information on the EIB advisory services under InvestEU
To find out more about the (other) services offered by the EIB under the InvestEU Advisory Hub send an email to eib-advisory@eib.org
1Social enterprise finance providers include, inter alia:
- investment funds,
- impact investors,
- incubators,
- accelerators
that offer or are in the process of widening their scope with a view to providing accompanying financial support to social enterprises