A complex approach

The last 12 months were characterised by contracting business lending and less active commercial banks. We asked Zoltán Boldis, the product and process development director of Budapest Bank’s corporate sector about Budapest Bank’s lending practices. – Budapest Bank uses the same prudent partnership approach as earlier, therefore instead of making it drastically stricter for SMEs to take out loans, we focus on giving them advices. Last year we were not forced to delete products or foreign exchange portfolios, and we did not have to quit sectors or segments either. From June 2010 Budapest Bank Business offers export pre-financing loans with a favourable interest rate for stable companies. • T. M.: – To what extent did risk assessment change? – The last period showed that standard approaches do not work during the crisis. Our goal is to give financing opportunities to well-performing companies in bad sectors too. • T. M.: – Did your crisis products fulfil expectations? – We were one of the firsts to sign a unique refinancing credit line contract with Eximbank, due to which SMEs have access to loans with one of the best interest rates in the country for pre-financing future export revenues. • T. M.: – Hungarian enterprises often complain about high interest rates and a low number of available loans. Do you agree with their criticism? – Because of the crisis the number of creditworthy enterprises decreased, so some companies might find it harder to acquire loans. But this does not mean that there are fewer loans available, banks are simply granting loans more consciously. • T. M.: – How do you evaluate the first nine months of the year? – Business and investment activity remain to be restrained. It is mostly state-supported and efficiency-improving investments which are realised; capacity-increasing investments are less frequent.