Three Greek banks have signed up to European Investment Bank (EIB) credit lines for security and defence companies in less than a year. The EIB has approved €450m in total for Piraeus Bank, CrediaBank and National Bank of Greece (NBG).
The deals run under the EIB’s pan-European security and defence lending envelope. The EIB tripled it to €3bn in June 2025 for loans and guarantees channelled through banks to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and mid-caps in the defence supply chain. When CrediaBank joined in July, the EIB said Greece was the first country with more than one participating bank.
NBG’s €250m package, announced on 18 September, combines €200m raised through an NBG covered bond with a €50m guarantee. A covered bond is backed by a ring-fenced pool of the bank’s loans. The EIB said it was its first security and defence deal using that structure.
Piraeus Bank signed for €100m in December. CrediaBank’s €100m approval has so far produced a €50m first tranche. The EIB expects each of those two lines to mobilise up to €200m with the banks’ own lending.
Not all of the money is defence lending. Under each Greek deal, at least half must go to companies active in, or investing in, security and defence, with the rest available to other SMEs and mid-caps for investment and working capital.
The bank lines sit alongside Greece’s €787.7m loan under SAFE, the EU’s €150bn defence loan instrument. Greece received a first payment of €118.2m in July. A law passed in November 2025 also set aside €150m in enhanced tax deductions for investment in defence and vehicle production, according to Greek press reports.
Greece is among NATO’s highest spenders relative to the size of its economy. NATO estimates it will spend 3.65 per cent of GDP on defence in 2026, the fifth-highest share in the alliance.
The EIB has signed similar deals elsewhere, most recently an 8 October guarantee with Santander that it expects to unlock about €300m of lending for defence suppliers in Spain. The EIB Group aims to put 5 per cent of its EU financing, more than €5bn, into security and defence this year, up from over €4bn in 2025.
