Similar schemes

The ESFA project is inspired by proven or developing mechanisms:

• The “SFEF”, a French temporary agency that was created in 2008 to solve liquidity problems on the interbank market and which helped to manage the transition of a seriously disrupted financial system. The issue of bonds by the agency benefited from the state guarantee, without impacting the public debt;
• The KfW bank that has a balance sheet of about € 500 bn guaranteed by the German state. The bank is particularly active in the financing of the energy shift for large amounts and with strong control mechanisms, both ex ante and ex post. Again, this is a scheme which does not directly impact the public debt;
• The UK “Guarantees Scheme for Infrastructure Projects” that was launched in 2012 and which offers a total envelope of £ 40 bn of financial guarantees for infrastructure projects in the UK[1];
• Currently being created: a mechanism by the CDC to finance energy renovation in private residential buildings[2].  Both this scheme and the ESFA address similar issues (off-balance sheet public guarantee, refinancing) which are also complementary with regards to selected targets.

The ESFA could moreover facilitate efforts to mobilize current loans (EIB, Fonds d’épargne of the French CDC[3]), playing a role of aggregator, and ensuring the necessary traceability of funds to the energy shift (see the white paper on the financing of the ecological transition) [4].