OTP Bank share of corporate lending market edges up to 8.6%

OTP Bank's share of Hungary's corporate lending market climbed one percentage point to 8.6% in the first half of the year, deputy-CEO László Wolf said at a press conference on Thursday.

The bank is not scaling back its corporate lending activities, rather it wants to seek prospective corporate lenders with new products, both its own as well as constructions involving the state-owned Hungarian Development Bank (MFB) and Eximbank, Wolf said. OTP Bank signed corporate loan contracts for HUF 105bn in the first half, he added.

The bank has so far taken applications for HUF 43.5bn from companies in the framework of the OTP Széchenyi 500 program, Wolf said.

Director Sándor Aladics said the bank had offered businesses a combined HUF 73.5bn under the program, launched in June, or an average of HUF 212m apiece. Most applications were for working capital and short-term financing, but applications were also made for HUF 13bn in investment loans, he said. So far, outlays under the program have come to HUF 12bn-13bn, he added.

OTP Bank is making about HUF 185bn in credit available to SMEs and microbusinesses in the framework of a program that offers such clients working capital of HUF 3m-25m, said deputy-CEO Dániel Gyuris. SMEs account for 30-35% of Hungary's GDP and employ 50-55% the country's workforce, he added.