This report focuses on the EIB’s global loan funding and disbursements during 2008 and 2009 to four states within the CEE region: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and the Slovak Republic. This two year period saw the most severe impacts of the financial crisis and the study therefore focuses on assessing the effectiveness of global loan lending in disbursing funds to SMEs in these four states as well as the effectiveness of global loans in providing support to the SME sector as was the intention.