Greece's Ministry of National Economy and Finance signed a decision to increase public resources for the TEPIX III Loan Fund by EUR 100m, with the additional capital expected to leverage new lending totalling EUR 240m. The top-up is funded from the 2021–2027 ESIF “Competitiveness” programme and is intended to broaden small and medium-sized enterprises’ access to bank financing following strong demand, including full absorption of the third funding phase within one week. Across the three previous phases of the Loan Fund, more than 2,700 loans totalling EUR 924m were approved for SMEs nationwide. Under the scheme, 40% of each loan is provided interest-free and the remaining 60% can receive an interest-rate subsidy of up to 3% for two years, equating to an interest-rate reduction of up to 70% in the first two years. Investment loans run for 5 to 12 years with a grace period of up to 24 months, while working-capital loans run for 2 to 5 years with a grace period of up to 12 months; special-purpose working-capital loans range from EUR 10,000 to EUR 500,000 and investment loans from EUR 20,000 to EUR 8,000,000. Applications are submitted via the Hellenic Development Bank’s KYC platform.