Business news from Ukraine

Lending to small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) becomes a driver of the banking market, Deputy Board Chairperson of the bank Globus Olena Dmitriyeva said at a roundtable organized by the Financial Club in Kyiv on Tuesday. “SME becomes a driver of lending, as in this segment the quality of the portfolio is twice better than the quality of portfolios of corporate clients. 75% of banks started lending to SME, and this is a good trend,” she said. Dmitriyeva said that at present, banks are trying to relax the decision making processes for lending to SME.
Head of the SME department at Piraeus Bank Svitlana Bazhenova said that from October 2017 through February 2018, the SME loan portfolio in Ukraine grew by UAH 25 billion.
“The growth of SME share of total portfolio of loans issued to businesses by Ukrainian banks grew from 51% to 52% of the total loan portfolio. The growth was mainly generated by loans to SME,” she said. Deputy Director of the SME department at Ukrgasbank Semen Puskai pointed out the importance of programs to support development of SME.
“We are optimistic about the future of the SME segment, as there are now many assistants in this area. There is the state that implements programs to reduce the cost of loans for agrarians, and we also see the active participation of international financial institutions like the German-Ukrainian Fund, the EIB and IFC. When decentralization began municipalities started joining the project. They cheapen lending rates and support business in their region… To date, the programs signed and declared with the municipalities are quite numerous, but it is necessary that these programs start working as soon as possible and then, there will be cheaper rates,” he said.