​​Finnvera becomes a shareholder in the European Investment Fund – ”We aim to ensure that EU financing supports the Finnish economy and growth in the best possible way”

Finnvera joins the European Investment Fund (EIF) as a shareholder and becomes a more integral part of the European Union’s SME finance field. Through ownership, Finnvera wants to actively promote the interest of the whole of Finland and the Finnish financial sector in the EIF, for the benefit of both banks and private equity investors. 

The EIF is a major financier of small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) in Finland. In 2024, EIF financing for the SME sector totalled to EUR 606 million, of which EUR 561 million were guarantees mainly for banks. 

“The shareholding opens us the way to channel European financing to Finnish companies and to promote the opportunities for banks and private equity investors operating in Finland to utilise the financing. We aim to ensure that EU financing supports the Finnish economy and growth in the best possible way”, said Juuso Heinilä, CEO of Finnvera.

The majority shareholders of the EIF are the European Commission and the European Investment Bank (EIB). The EIF is part of the EIB Group and acts as its specialist arm for supporting SMEs through guarantees, equity investments, and other financial instruments. In total, there are 41 organisations as shareholders including both state-owned and commercial financial institutions. In Finland, Finnvera is currently the only organisation having an ownership in the EIF and hence, Finland has not been represented in the decision-making of the EIF. The decision to buy the shares was made by the Finnvera Board of Directors.

“We are thrilled to be welcoming a Finnish entity to the family of EIF shareholders. Finnvera is already a key partner of the EIB Group and has a long-standing relationship with both the EIF and EIB. We are building on a successful cooperation, having worked together to introduce new financial instruments to the Finnish market that were met with strong demand. This transaction further strengthens our mutual commitment to the development of the European financial markets”, said EIF Chief Executive Marjut Falkstedt.

“Finnvera’s entry as an EIF shareholder is a milestone for Finland’s voice in shaping Europe’s financial ecosystem,” said EIB Vice-President Karl Nehammer. “This step reinforces the EIB Group’s commitment to ensuring that EU resources drive innovation, competitiveness, and sustainable growth. By bringing Finnish perspectives into EIF governance, we strengthen the ability to channel financing where it matters most.”

Finnvera and the EIF have signed various risk-sharing agreements since 1998. As of 2019, risk-sharing has been regularly used in Finnvera's guarantee products, such as the SME Guarantee backed by the COSME loan guarantee facility. The guarantee enabled financing for several thousand SMEs. Since June 2023, the InvestEU-guaranteed Climate and Digitalisation Loans, developed in cooperation by Finnvera and the EIF, have been granted to Finnish SMEs and midcap companies for a total of approximately EUR 170 million. In June 2025, Finnvera and the EIF agreed on a new guarantee facility that will allow Finnvera to grant additional export guarantees to Ukraine.

Juuso Heinilä expects European corporate finance to develop towards strengthening growth and renewal.

“It is essential that financing boosts the competitiveness of European companies and focuses on investments and renewal. From the Finnish point of view, a key question is, how we manage to channel financing to Finnish companies. For the whole of Europe, it is crucial how we manage to allocate financing not to the old and conserving but to the genuinely new innovations”, said Heinilä.

Finnvera is already a key partner of the EIB Group and has a long-standing relationship with both the EIF and EIB. Pictured from the left Finnvera's CEO Juuso Heinilä, EVP Juha Ketola, Head of International Affairs Pekka Karkovirta and EIF regional representative Juho Aminoff, Head of EIB Group Office in Finland Jaani Pietikäinen and Vice-President Karl Nehammer.

Contact information:

Tiina Riippa, Communications Manager, Finnvera, tel. +358 29 460 2865

Kristiina Randmaa, Media Officer for Finland and the Baltics, EIB, tel. +352 6912 16375 (mobile) 

Background information

Finnvera strengthens the operating potential and competitiveness of Finnish enterprises by offering loans, guarantees, export credit guarantees, and other services associated with the financing of exports. Finnvera is a specialized financing company owned by the State of Finland and the Export Credit Agency (ECA) of Finland. Finnvera is one of the key organizations in Team Finland network that accelerates business internationalization and growth. At the end of September (Q3/2025), Finnvera’s total exposure for domestic loans and guarantees as well as export credit guarantees, export guarantees and special guarantees amounted to EUR 26.3 billion. For more information, visit www.finnvera.fi/eng

The European Investment Fund is part of the European Investment Bank Group. Its central mission is to support Europe’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by helping them access finance. The EIF designs and develops venture and growth capital, guarantees and microfinance instruments that specifically target this market segment. In this role, the EIF furthers key EU policy objectives such as competitiveness and growth, innovation and digitalisation, social impact, skills and human capital, climate action and environmental sustainability, and more.