On 26 October 2011, Heads of State or Government of euro area Member States agreed on two options for the purpose of leveraging the resources of European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF). These options were described as being:

• providing credit enhancement to new debt issued by euro-area Member States thus reducing the funding cost; and
• maximising the funding arrangements of EFSF with a combination of resources from private and public financial institutions and investors which can be arranged through special purpose vehicles. This will enlarge the amount of resources available to extend loans, for bank recapitalisation and for buying bonds in the primary and secondary markets.

ESBPF is a company incorporated in Luxembourg as a société anonyme which was created on 5 January 2012 for the purpose of issuing sovereign protection certificates (Sovereign Protection Certificates), in order to implement the first option described above for leveraging the resources of EFSF.