As of July 2022, the current EaSI Technical Assistance Programme officially transitions to Social Inclusive Finance Technical Assistance (SIFTA) managed by the EIB and funded by the European Union under the InvestEU Advisory Hub with a contribution from the EIB.

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SIFTA builds on the former EaSI programme 2014-2020, maintaining the focus on the non-financial support activities related to the former Microfinance and Social Entrepreneurship axis of the programme.

The transition from EaSI to InvestEU comes with changes in practice for European microcredit providers who wish to sign up to or endorse the European Code of Good Conduct for Microcredit Provision - a prerequisite to benefit from the financial instruments in support of microfinance under the InvestEU.

The InvestEU Advisory Hub support is now available via a central entry point on the European Commission’s website. For more information, consult the EIB’s SIFTA website.

Closure of EaSI MicPro application and new standard template to comply with the Code

EaSI MicPro application will not accept new registrations or modifications from microcredit providers from 31 July 2022. It will be taken permanently down by mid-September. The Code Steering Group has decided that, starting from 14 June 2022, microcredit providers undergoing a Code evaluation will instead publish their Code related financial and operational information with a standard template on their own website.

The template should be updated and re-published annually on the website of the provider to ensure compliance with the Code clauses 4.2, 4.2.1 - 4.2.10, 4.3, 4.4.1 - 4.4.10 and 4.5. The Code Steering Group reserves the right to do spot checks to ensure compliance with the Code throughout the award period. 

Regarding the already awarded providers:

• Microcredit providers that have been awarded based on the updated Code (since 2021) will need to publish the filled in template by the time of their mid-term progress reporting, two years into the four-year award period. These providers will be contacted directly by the European Commission.
• Microcredit providers that have been awarded based on the old version of the Code (before 2021) with a three-year award period do not need to use the new template before their next Code re-evaluation.

Change of format of the Helpdesk

The Helpdesk is a free-of-charge service developed by the European Commission. Until July 2022 it has been accessible via the EaSI MicPro platform. Through the Helpdesk, users, e.g. microfinance institutions, investors, funds, and clients, have asked questions in all EU languages on the EaSI financial instruments, EaSI Technical Assistance, European Code of Good Conduct for Microcredit Provision, and other EaSI Programme related issues.

In the future, the Helpdesk will be run by the EIB in a new format under SIFTA.