By Olga Rosca

QNB Finansbank, a major Turkish lender, will ramp up trade activities and lending to small businesses amid the coronavirus pandemic with a new €100 million(US$107.88million)financing package provided by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

Half of the funding will support QNB Finansbank’s trade finance activities.

The other half will be on-lent to local companies suffering from the negative economic consequences of the Covid-19 outbreak.

EBRD Managing Director for Turkey, Arvid Tuerkner said: “Our financing for QNB Finansbank has three important goals: to provide finance needed to keep trade flowing, to bridge the liquidity gap for companies under stress and to strengthen the resilience of the Turkish banking sector.”

CEO of QNB Finansbank, Temel Güzeloğlu added: “We believe SMEs are the locomotive of the economy, they need to be supported to survive and keep growing. Financing provided by the EBRD will support SMEs that experience liquidity problems and help them maintain cash flows while minimising the effects of the pandemic. It will also allow our customers to take advantage of long-term financing at lower costs.”

In parallel, QNB Finansbank has mobilised US$ 255 million from nine international lenders, and has agreed a €25 million loan from Proparco, a French development financial institution, to support agriculture.

The financing is part of the EBRD’s Solidarity Package to help companies in 38 emerging markets deal with the economic impact of the pandemic. The EBRD stands ready to provide support worth €21 billion over the 2020-21 period.

The package includes short-term liquidity, working capital and restructuring of exposure for existing clients, as well as trade finance and an emergency support programme for key infrastructure providers. The Bank will also ramp up its local currency, capital markets and equity offers.

The EBRD is a major investor in Turkey. Since 2009 it has invested almost €12 billion in various sectors of the country’s economy, with almost all investment in the private sector.

The EBRD’s €6.7 billion Turkey portfolio is the largest among the 38 economies where the Bank invests.