Finance providers in the Cultural and Creative Sectors to benefit from Capacity Building

The European Investment Fund (EIF) and the consortium of Deloitte Digital and KEA European Affairs have signed an agreement to provide capacity building to  financial intermediaries operating under the Cultural and Creative Sectors Guarantee Facility.  

The objective of capacity building is to improve the ability of financial intermediaries to assess the risks associated with SMEs and micro, small and medium-sized organisations in the cultural and creative sectors  These companies will benefit from technical assistance, knowledge-building and networking opportunities.

Capacity Building will complement the guarantees offered under the Cultural and Creative Sectors Guarantee Facility through the provision of expertise from the consortium of Deloitte Digital and KEA. It  aims at guiding financial institutions in understanding and evaluating the risk associated with investments in the cultural and creative sectors, as well as, at enabling partnerships between the financial and the creative sectors.  

Deloitte Digital and KEA have joined forces to deliver capacity building by combining Deloitte’s strong experience in providing professional services to financial institutions – including in credit risk assessment, debt financing to SMEs, etc - with KEA’s extensive experience in the cultural and creative sectors, including market, regulatory and management analysis, economics and access to finance. 

The creative and cultural sectors account for more than 7 million jobs in the EU and 4.2% of the EU's GDP.  The development of the sector is paramount to Europe’s innovation capacity, as well as, the growth of the digital economy.  

About the EIF

The European Investment Fund (EIF) is part of the European Investment Bank group. Its central mission is to support Europe's micro, small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) by helping them to access finance. EIF designs and develops venture and growth capital, guarantees and microfinance instruments which specifically target this market segment. In this role, EIF fosters EU objectives in support of innovation, research and development, entrepreneurship, growth, and employment.

About Deloitte Digital

Deloitte Digital provides a wide range of Digital and Advisory services to public and private clients. With a globally connected network of member firms, Deloitte Digital brings world-class capabilities and deep local expertise to help clients in the financial services industry as well as in the Cultural and Creative Sectors to succeed wherever they operate.

About KEA European Affairs

KEA European Affairs is an international policy design research center specialised in culture and creative industries, economics and sports. Since 1999, KEA has been a pioneer in the field of cultural and creative industry policy. KEA advises territories, organisations and people to unlock the potential of culture and creative industries.  www.keanet.eu

About the Cultural and Creative Sectors Guarantee Facility and Creative Europe

Set up under the cross-sectoral strand of the Creative Europe programme, the Cultural and Creative Sectors Guarantee Facility (CCS GF), which counts for an overall budget of EUR 181 million, is the first EU financial instrument with a specific focus on culture and creative sectors. In addition to supporting the positive effect that entities operating in the cultural and creative sectors have on the society, the CCS GF seemingly pursues the same objective as the SME window of the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), which drives the Investment Plan for Europe: increasing lending to SMEs to enable them to scale up their activities.

Creative Europe is a 7-year programme (2014-2020) designed to support the creative and cultural sectors. It has a budget of EUR 1.46 billion for the whole duration of the period. It is composed of the MEDIA sub-programme, helping the development and the distribution of European audiovisual works, the Culture sub-programme, which supports initiatives in the sector of culture promoting, amongst others, the cross-border cooperation or platforms for emerging artists, and the cross-sectoral strand. The objective of Creative Europe is to promote cultural diversity, encourage the circulation of European culture and creativity and strengthen the competitiveness of the cultural and creative sectors.