MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: ASN Bank Lends EFSE $50m for Micro-, Small Enterprises; Households in Europe, Western Asia

ASN Bank, a retail banking member of the Netherlands’ de Volksbank, recently agreed to purchase EUR 50 million (USD 50 million) in notes from the European Fund for Southeast Europe (EFSE), which provides investments and technical assistance to microfinance institutions and other lenders in Eastern and Southeastern Europe as well as Western Asia.

The director of ASN’s sustainable finance team, Yvonne van Hoof, explained, “Via this investment, we are ultimately able to improve the quality of life of people and small enterprises… to contribute to a more sustainable world that is safe and healthy to live in, and where the environment is respected, both in the present and the future.”

The goals of ASN Bank include “banking in a socially responsible way and… promoting sustainable development.” Its parent organization, de Volksbank, also owns the mortgage lender BLG Wonen and the retail banks RegioBank and SNS. Together these firms serve 3.3 million customers with a balance sheet of EUR 72 billion (USD 72 billion).

EFSE issues “long-term” funding for micro- and small enterprises as well as households via partner retail institutions. EFSE also operates the EFSE Development Facility, which provides technical assistance, consulting and training services to support capacity building within these institutions. EFSE was established in 2005 by the German development bank Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) with financial support from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (which is also known by its German acronym BMZ) and the EU’s European Commission. Its slate of investors also includes private banks, funds and family offices. Finance in Motion of Germany acts as EFSE’s fund advisor, and the fund is managed by Hauck & Aufhäuser Fund Services, a Luxembourg-based unit of Germany’s Hauck Aufhäuser Lampe Privatbank. EFSE operates in 16 countries: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Georgia, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine. As of 2022, the fund reports a portfolio of EUR 1.04 billion (USD 1.04 billion) committed to 73 partner lenders, of which microfinance institutions comprise roughly half.

Sources and Additional Resources

Finance in Motion press release
https://www.finance-in-motion.com/press-releases/press-release/asn-bank-invests-eur-50-million-in-efse/

ASN Bank homepage
https://www.asnbank.nl

De Volksbank homepage
https://www.devolksbank.nl

Hauck & Aufhäuser Fund Services description
https://www.hal-privatbank.com/en/asset-servicing/financial-assets/capital-management-company-kvg-and-fund-administration-in-luxembourg

EFSE homepage
https://www.efse.lu

Did you know that MicroCapital publishes the MicroCapital Monitor newspaper each month? Find out more at https://www.microcapital.org/products-page/.