Magazine: Loans from an SME perspective

Viktor Zoltán Kovács, the head of K&H Bank’s SME marketing division is of the opinion that in 2015 the products of the Lending for Growth Programme (NHP) – with their low, 2.5-percent interest rate – and short-term, flexible and simple freely usable loans have been the most popular among SMEs.

This year K&H granted loans from the NHP scheme in the value of more than HUF 157 billion. The bank also offers investment loans that they finance themselves, the conditions of these are specified after assessing the customers’ background individually. Mr Kovács told that in 2015 demand for NHP loans actually fell in comparison with 2014. Csaba Kormos, FHB Mortgage Bank Nyrt.’s director reckons that in 2015 demand increased for leasing products and working capital loans. SMEs can choose the loans that suit their needs the best from FHB Banks’ financing portfolio. The director added that for financing their export activities SMEs should check out loans offered by Eximbank for the best conditions. There is also growing interest in treasury products from SMEs. Mr Kor­mos informed that businesses most often wish to take out current account loans (in forint) and FHB Bank now grants these with better interest rate conditions than before. Customers want personal service and personalised conditions when they apply for a loan and FHB Bank gives these to them, together with a constantly growing loan portfolio to choose from. Sándor Aladics, OTP Bank Nyrt.’s SME business line director told our magazine that practically all kinds of loans are available from the bank. At the moment NHP loans are the most sought-after by micro- and small businesses – OTP Bank granted more than HUF 126 billion worth of these to enterprises this year. From the bank’s own loan products the director recommends the new OTP Business 250 Loan programme: in this scheme if a HUF 250-million limit can be set for customers, they get access to a current account loan, a working capital loan and an investment loan. András Bakonyi, the director of MKB Bank’s corporate banking division shares the view that the biggest hit this year are NHP loans. The loan products of the Exim group are also more and more popular – MKB Bank is in close cooperation with Exim. MKB offers own products too (in both forint and euro), lending to SMEs of all kinds no matter what type of loan they need, e.g. investment, working capital, etc. Mr Bakonyi’s view is that among short-term loans current account loans and revolving working capital loans dominate. Factoring products complement these very well in the domains of both export and import activities. László Kálmán, the head of Erste Bank’s SME business line also talked to us about the highly popular Eximbank and NHP loan products. He called attention to the fact that in addition to SMEs getting loans cheaper – with lower interest rates – through these schemes than in the market, it also matters a lot to them that the interest rate doesn’t change in the duration period. In both the NHP and the Eximbank loan programmes various products are available for financing a wide range of business activities, e.g. investments, working capital financing, factoring.