Today, small and medium-sized enterprises have access to bank financing and indeed very competitive spreads, which are not significantly different from large enterprises, he noted. Theodoris Tsouros Piraeus General Corporate and Investment Bank, speaking at the 5th International Conference of the Economic Chamber of GreeceThe world is in transition.
Spreads range from 1.8% to 2.2%, while the cap for large firms is 1.5%.
And he added that systemic banks, with a loan-to-deposit ratio of 60%, compared to the European average of 107%, have excess liquidity that they want to use. However, demand for new loans by households and businesses is significantly lower than what banks are able and willing to offer.
However, as Mr. Tsouros pointed out, credit expansion to businesses in the two years 2022-2023 amounted to 9.4 billion euros, despite high interest rates, and he also emphasized that small and medium-sized businesses are currently benefiting from the programs; The Development Bank and the European Investment Fund with guaranteed and co-financed loans, interest rate subsidies for investment purposes and working capital needs.
It should be noted that according to the 2023-2024 monetary policy report of the Bank of Greece, the credit balances of businesses given to banks amounted to 64.7 billion euros last February.
Loan division
In fact, large companies account for 44% of the total balance, very small companies – 23%, medium companies – 19%, small companies – 15%. But large companies account for only 1/25 of the number of loans, because they are financed with larger amounts than small and medium-sized companies. It should be noted that the average loan amount for large enterprises is estimated at approximately 10 million euros, for medium-sized enterprises – 1.1 million euros, while for small or very small enterprises the corresponding average value of the loan agreement is does not exceed 500 million euros, reports the Bank of Greece. Interest rates range from 6.3% for large businesses to 7.6% for very small businesses.
As for new loans, according to the BoE in May, the monthly net flow of funding to businesses was positive at €105m, compared to a negative net flow of €730m the previous month.
Conversely, the monthly net flow of financing to self-employed professionals, farmers and sole proprietorships was negative by €7 million (compared to a negative net flow of €26 million in the previous month).
Household financing also had a negative sign: 32 million euros (against the negative net flow of 34 million euros last month).
In the same month, businessmen increased their bank deposits by 559 million euros, against the decrease of 154 million euros in the previous month. On the contrary, household deposits decreased by 274 million euros, after the increase of 348 million euros registered in April.
