Image: Jessica Fejos

According to data sent by the participating banks to the MNB until January 3, 2020 the banks have signed contracts with 12,744 enterprises as a part of 17,276 deals. The stock outstanding of the loans and lease contracts came to HUF 294 bln.

55% of the contracts signed were for new investment loans and 45% were for leasing transactions. More than half of the outlays were received by micro-companies, MNB reported.

A little less than HUF 90 bln of funding went to SMEs in the agricultural sector, more than HUF 55 bln went to manufacturing companies and nearly HUF 50 bln to retail and repair companies.

The average size for the loans was HUF 83.6 million with an average maturity of 8.6 years. The average leasing contract was HUF 11.5 mln and on average it was for 4.9 years.

MNB launched the FGS fix program with a total of HUF 1,000 bln on January 1, 2019 to raise the proportion of long-term, fixed-rate lending to SMEs. Under the program, banks may use the 0% funding from the MNB to lend to businesses at a rate capped at 2.5%. The loans are limited to new investment loans and include leases. MNB is sterilizing excess liquidity arising from the scheme through a preferential deposit facility that pays the central bank base rate.