Banking on Europe: Why the EIB is backing rental firms with cheap loans

In a world where banks are facing increasing scrutiny over their lending, the European Investment Bank, the lending arm of the European Union, must make some difficult choices.

The Luxembourg-based bank, which was founded in 1958 with a mandate to lend in the public interest, providing loans to projects and regions which might otherwise struggle to win backing from commercial financiers, is jointly owned by the EU’s 27 member states.

Over the last 66 years, the bank has mushroomed, growing to become the biggest public development bank in the world – even larger than the World Bank and providing loans touching all walks of life from the European Galileo satellite navigation system to the BionTech covid vaccine development.