Market research on lending to small and medium-sized businesses, conducted by "Prostobank Consulting" included 25 leading banks in the market for businesses. The research showed that according to the results of August 2013 the cost of loans and micro-credit loans for working capital decreased slightly in all currencies. While in other segments of the market average effective rate varied

1. General description of the market

The main outcomes of the market development of corporate lending in August 2013 were the following:

· the average effective interest rate on loans to customers of small- and medium-sized businesses (hereinafter – SMBs) in local currency in most segments decreased by 0.04 percentage points – 1.09 percentage points, except for the car loan segment in which they remained at the same level, as well as the segment of loans for working capital, where their rate increased by 0.03 percentage points;

· the average effective rate in U.S. dollars in most segments increased by 0.04-0.06 percentage points, while in the car loan segment, its level decreased by 0.01 percentage points , and in the segment of micro-credits it decreased by 0.66 percentage points, with an average effective rate in Euro declined in all segments by 0.01-0.2 percentage points, except for the segment of credit for working capital, the value of which increased by 0.03 percentage points;

· As of August 31, 2013, 63.6% of loans to legal entities were in the national currency, 31.3% - in U.S. dollars, 4.5% – in Euro, while the share of loans in Russian rubles and other currencies did not exceed 1% of the loan portfolio of banks to enterprises (0.6% and 0.1% respectively) ;

· Average maximum amount of lending that banks were willing to provide to the business, depending on the type of loans ranged from 2.88 million UAH for loans for the purchase of commercial vehicles up to 8.5 million UAH for loans to purchase commercial real estate. As for the quantitative characteristics of the market, in July 2013, the loan portfolio of legal entities increased by 5.09 billion UAH (or 0.82%) to 628,188 billion UAH as of August 31, 2013.

Olena Rudyk, head of department on work with small and medium-sized businesses of First Ukrainian International Bank:

"There is a slight variation of the effective rates in the summer, but they were in spots and had no significant impact on the market in general. Our view is that in the autumn the indicated positive trend will continue. Reduce in the values ​​of effective rates is possible as an individual approach to medium-sized customers, which are noted for a more structured and sustainable business, which is inherent in a low level of risk. We do not expect sharp fluctuations in the cost of financing corporate clients in autumn. However, now there are situations were banks declare lower interest rates that are compensated by increasing the initial fee or introducing monthly fees. In this connection, we can assume the possible redistribution of prices between the interest rate and the fees in order to attract more attention of clients.”

For full version of the Study please visit Prosto Bankir