The appetite for financing of the local small and medium enterprises has been constantly developing for the past years, Garanti Bank registering an annual average growth of 20% in the SME segment from 2010 and up to the present, said the bank in a statement.

Garanti Bank, one of the most innovative and dynamic banks on the local market, has a portfolio of 25,000 SME clients and has reached a total volume of the active loans granted to SMEs of almost EUR 300 million, with an average loan ticket size of EUR 90,000. At the same time, the average annual increase in the volume of SME customer deposits has been 42.5% in the last four years.

Most small and medium enterprises in Garanti Bank’s portfolio (run by men and/or women) operate in the commerce & distribution sector (17%), followed by services (15%), healthcare & tourism (13%), and others (13%), 67% of the SMEs contracting loans for investments and 33% for working capital.

Continuing to implement its strategy to support the local economy and the small and medium companies, Garanti Bank will grant EUR 35 million to Romanian SMEs, following the recent loan agreement with IFC, member of the World Bank Group. Out of the total amount, EUR 20 million will be dedicated for the on-lending to companies owned or managed by women. Since February 2012, when the two financial institutions signed the first loan agreement, EUR 22.5 million were allocated in funding more than 160 local SMEs in various market segments.

“We are very happy to have signed this second loan agreement with IFC and to continue to support local businesses, improving their access to finance and securing them the funding necessary for circulating capital and investments”, stated Ufuk Tandogan, CEO Garanti Group Romania.

“In Romania, the statistics show that we have around 500,000 SMEs, resulting in one of the lowest numbers of small and medium enterprises per 1000 inhabitants in the European Union. The number of women who are shareholders represents 36% of the total legal persons registered on the local market. This data reflects the growth potential both for the SME sector, as well as for the women entrepreneurs, and our goal is to contribute to the development of these business segments”, stated Ioana Maria Dumitru, Head of Commercial & SME Banking at Garanti Bank.

Garanti Bank has in its portfolio more than 2,700 SME clients that have women as shareholders or in the top management structures. The volume of loans granted to small and medium companies owned or managed by women has registered an average annual growth of 41% in the past four years and the volume of deposits of 48% in the same time frame. Most of the women entrepreneurs in the bank’s portfolio are active in commerce (25%), healthcare & social assistance (15%), and wholesalers commerce (10%), and 52% of them have contracted loans for working capital, while 48% for investments.