Analysis of Repayable Financial Instruments in Corporate Financing. Experiences and Consequences for Poland

Abstract

Financial engineering instruments (FEIs) are a way of using Structural Funds to deliver cohesion policy objectives, in addition to grants, and are a part of the strategy aiming at promoting long-term sustainable growth in the European regions. FEIs were already used to deliver ERDF in some MSs during 1994–1999 and became more widespread during 2007–2013, growing rapidly in variety, scope, and scale. As part of the decisional process, managing authorities must assess whether they want to implement the FEI operation through a holding fund or through a direct contribution from the operational programmes to a specific fund. FEIs can be implemented using various instruments like JEREMIE Initiative. In Poland, six regions support enterprises through Holding Fund in the form of loans, guarantees, and capital product. The idea of FEIs has initiated, not only in Poland, a new approach to supporting enterprises whose consequences are beginning to materialize in the form of transformations in local and regional financial markets.