JEREMIE Holding Fund for Greece: Call for Expression of Interest to select Financial Intermediaries to implement the Funded Risk Sharing Financial Instrument

Call for Expressions of Interest (“EoI”) to select Financial Intermediaries that will receive resources from the European Investment Fund acting through the JEREMIE Holding Fund for Greece to implement the Funded Risk Sharing Financial Instrument

Reference number: Call for EoI No. JER-001/2010/1

The JEREMIE initiative is a framework providing a series of coherent actions to promote increased access to finance for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.

The JEREMIE initiative in Greece is organised through the European Investment Fund (hereinafter, “EIF”) acting through the JEREMIE Holding Fund (hereinafter, “JHF”). Through the JHF, the EIF manages funds made available from the European Regional Development Fund (hereinafter, “ERDF”) and related public expenditure awarded for utilisation under the JEREMIE initiative.

As part of the Sectoral Operational Programme “Competitiveness and Entrepreunership” and the Regional Operational Programmes “Macedonia - Thrace”, “Crete and Aegean Islands”, “Thessaly - Continental Greece - Epirus” and “Attica” for the period 2007-2013 , defined in detail within the National Strategic Reference Framework 2007-2013 of Greece , the competent national authorities have agreed to dedicate resources to the implementation of the JEREMIE initiative with the EIF, in accordance with Article 44 of the Council Regulation (EC) No. 1083/2006  (hereinafter, “Reg. 1083/2006”) and in accordance with the provisions of the Funding Agreement (hereinafter, “Funding Agreement”) entered into on 26 June 2007 between the Government of the Hellenic Republic, represented by the Ministry of Economy and Finance (hereinafter, “HR”) and EIF. Relevant rules for implementing Reg. 1083/2006 are set out in the Commission Regulation (EC) No. 1828/2006  (hereinafter, “Reg. 1828/2006”).

The cooperation between the HR and the EIF acting through the JHF is governed by the Funding Agreement, which defines the type of cooperation and the operational modalities of the JHF financing expenditure in respect of an operation, as this term is defined in Reg. 1083/2006 (hereinafter, “Operation”) comprising contributions to support financial engineering instruments. The EIF acting through the JHF is advised by the Investment Board, members of which are nominated by the Greek authorities (hereinafter, “Investment Board”). EIF in its capacity acting through the JHF acts on the basis of its usual business principles and an investment strategy and planning for the implementation of the JEREMIE initiative.

This Call for Expression of Interest targets financial engineering instruments referred to in Article 44 of Reg. 1083/2006 and is addressed to bodies or firms, whether public or private, which are interested in receiving resources out of the JHF for the activities in respect of Operations (hereinafter “Financial Intermediaries”). Such activities shall be carried out in accordance with the contractual agreements to be entered into by the JHF and the selected Financial Intermediaries (hereinafter, “Operational Agreement(s)”).

The Financial Intermediaries should express their interest by completing and submitting an Expression of Interest, a template of which is attached hereto as Annex 1.

The Deadline for the submission of Expressions of Interest is Friday, 16th of July 2010.

• Download here the full text of this Call for Expression of Interest (.pdf)

Download here the related annexes:

• Annex I (.pdf) 
• Annex II(.pdf) 
• FRSP indicative reporting template (.xls)
  
• Clarifications - Questions & Answer