Press Release: State aid: Scoreboard shows continued trend towards less and better targeted aid despite crisis-related spike

The volume of national support to the financial sector approved by the European Commission between October 2008 and October 2010 amounted to around €4.5 trillion, the autumn 2010 State Aid Scoreboard shows. The amount actually taken up by banks in 2009 is around €1.1 trillion. The bulk (76%) of this support comes in the form of State loans or guarantees to maintain interbank financing which would only have an impact on public finances, if they were called upon, whereas recapitalisation represents 12% and impaired asset relief 9%. Excluding the crisis-related support, total aid remained relatively stable at €73.2 billion in 2009 or 0.62% of GDP and continued to re-focus on less distortive horizontal objectives such as aid for research and innovation, protection of the environment and support to SMEs.