Spain

Banking and finance professionals attended the Global SME Finance Forum 2018's study tour on November 5 in Madrid. The tour featured 12 financial institutions and fintechs that have best in class, innovative ways of serving SMEs clients.

One of the participants said the tour was time well spent.

"They shared so many things that actually blew my mind and broke all the paradigms," said Robert Ochola, African Export-Import Bank. "These guys used innovation from two years to around seven months, from actual ideation to commericialization."

The European Investment Bank (EIB) and Banco Sabadell will provide EUR 800m to Spanish SMEs with the aim of supporting their investments and promoting the development of new projects, particularly in the services and industrial sectors. The EIB will grant a EUR 400m loan to Banco Sabadell, to which the Spanish bank will add an additional EUR 400m of its own.