Lender confidence and bank competition boost number of loans
Published:
17 September 2004 y., Friday
Small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) have finally found a way to get hold of bank loans.
Banks have reported an increasing volume of loans to small and medium-size companies for the first half of 2004. Experts say the shift is because smaller businesses have gained the confidence of lenders and the entire sector has been doing better.
Ceska sporitelna, for example, lent 10.4 billion Kc ($400 million) to companies with annual turnover worth 1 billion Kc in the first half of 2004, up by 41 percent compared to last year. In the same period the bank lent another 5 billion Kc to entrepreneurs and small business with turnover below 30 million Kc.
Spokeswoman Vera Carna said the bank has also established special commercial centers in each of the country's regions to provide loans.
At GE Capital Bank the volume of lending to small firms was up 32 percent to 6.3 billion Kc compared to the same period a year ago. The majority of smaller clients borrow an amount of less than 10 million Kc and in the case of an investment loan pay back the loan in two to five years, said Jan Hainz, the spokesman for GE Capital Bank.
Jan Schiesser, an analyst at Atlantik Financial Markets, said two key factors are responsible for the loan boom. He said there is tough national and international competition on the market for bigger clients, leading banks to focus on smaller customers. Also, SMEs have learned to keep their accounting transparent, so it is much easier for banks to assess the loan, Schiesser added.
He said he expects the volume of loans will continue to grow sharply in the next two to three years, as the bottom line was very low.
Šaltinis:
praguepost.com
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.
The most popular articles
The European Commission has approved, under EC Treaty state aid rules, an amendment to a Lithuanian scheme allowing aid to be granted of up to €500 000 per company, initially approved on 8 June 2009.
more »
As agreed by the President of the European Commission and the President of the Russian Federation during the last EU-Russia Summit in Khabarovsk, the EU and Russia have strengthened the current dispositions under the EU-Russia Energy Dialogue to prevent and manage potential energy crises, with an enhanced Early Warning Mechanism.
more »
The European Union has today presented to the World Trade Organization the trade facilitation projects it has financed between 2006 and 2008.
more »
The European Commission has authorised, under the EC Treaty’s rules on state aid, a planned state guarantee by Romania to enable Ford Romania SA to access a loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB).
more »
The economic crisis has left many countries with budget deficits well over the 3% limit. The commission is proposing deadlines for reducing the gaps.
more »
Statistics Lithuania informs that in October 2009, against September, prices for consumer goods and services went down by 0.4 per cent.
more »
Lithuania’s Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Šarūnas Adomavičius took part in bilateral political consultations with representatives from foreign affairs, commerce and transport ministries of the People’s Republic of China.
more »
Under the budgetary surveillance powers conferred by the EU Treaty, the European Commission today proposed to the Council to set 2013 as the deadline for the correction of the budget deficits in Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Netherlands and Portugal.
more »
A joint partnership between the World Bank, the Moldovan Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry and the Ministry of Environment was launched in Moldova’s capital in the late days of October.
more »
World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick today joins senior officials from the Government of Singapore to launch a new global urban strategy that will guide Bank advisory services and financing in the sector over the next decade.
more »