BUDAPEST: Erste Bankʼs volume of new corporate loans grew HUF 30 billion or 50% year-on-year in the first four months of 2017, the bank told Hungarian news agency MTI in a statement. Ersteʼs total volume of corporate loans stood at HUF 380 bln at the end of April, said Richárd Szabados, head of the bankʼs corporate division.
Erste controls around 6% of the market for corporate loans, which the bank plans to increase to 7% by the end of this year. The corporate division won more than 700 new clients and the transaction volume of companies keeping their accounts at Erste grew 22% in one year.
The non-performing loan (NPL) ratio in the corporate division fell to 2.5% by the end of April from 11% a year earlier. Erste projects to boost the volume of its new corporate loans by more than 15% in net terms in 2017, compared to a projected 5% growth on the entire corporate lending market.
Erste launched its loan replacing the National Bank of Hungaryʼs Funding for Growth Scheme (FGS) facility last year, providing fixed-rate long-term financing to companies, Szabados recalled. The FGS was phased out at the end of March 2017.
