• EBRD provides ABC Factors, Alpha Bank’s factoring subsidiary, with €20 million trade finance facility
• New facility will support import and export-oriented Greek SMEs and corporates engaged in domestic and international trade
• Greece is most active country under EBRD Trade Facilitation Programme

Businesses in Greece will benefit from a €20 million factoring facility provided to ABC Factors by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) under its Trade Facilitation Programme (TFP).

Building on the EBRD’s cooperation with Alpha Bank, the parent company of ABC Factors, the facility will enable the factoring subsidiary to further expand its portfolio of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and local corporate clients by providing funding for domestic and international factoring transactions.

ABC Factors offers a full range of factoring services in Greece and abroad through its affiliated network, FCI. The company was established in 1995 as the first one in Greece to be granted a factoring licence and holds a leading position in the Greek factoring market.

Factoring is a financing tool that can complement traditional bank lending. It proved to be extremely efficient during the financial crisis in Greece, allowing companies to improve their liquidity by receiving immediate working capital financing and thus managing their production cycles.

The EBRD Trade Facilitation Programme was established in 1999 with the aim of promoting international trade between its countries of operations through guarantees and short-term loans to selected participating banks and factoring companies.

The programme was introduced in Greece in 2006 and since then the EBRD has facilitated more than 1,650 transactions for a total value of €1.67 billion in the country, offering also technical assistance, including e-learning, regular workshops, seminars and individual advisory services. Over the past two years, Greece has been the most active country under the TFP by number of transactions issued and to date in 2020 still holds this position.

The EBRD started operating in Greece on a temporary basis in 2015 to support the country’s economic recovery. To date, the Bank has invested more than €4 billion in close to 70 projects in the corporate, financial, energy and infrastructure sectors of the Greek economy.