Despite its growth into one of biggest banks in Romania, small and medium-sized enterprises remain core to the strategy of Banca Transilvania and SMEs constitute a large proportion of its lending. In 2021, its SME loan portfolio reached L19.2 billion ($4.06 billion), with L3.7 billion of new loans during the year, reaching 18,000 SMEs and micro-enterprises.
Lending in its agriculture and medical doctor divisions saw particularly strong growth. Despite this expansion, its non-performing exposures ratio stood at just 2.71% by the end of the year, with a total coverage ratio of 166%.
Banca Transilvania’s chief executive Omer Tetik also took the SME offering forward with two M&A deals during the year: the acquisition of the Romanian part of Idea Bank from Poland’s Getin Holding, including its local leasing and insurance brokerage activities, and the acquisition of Tiriac Leasing, in the automotive sector.
Banca Transilvania has also been a significant player in local programmes facilitating SME access to financing during the pandemic, such as SME Invest and it granted thousands of loans worth billions of lei as part of this. It boasts being chosen as the partner bank by 60% of applicants to the HoReCa grants programme in the hospitality sector. Banca Transilvania’s unit for micro-enterprises, BT Microfinantare, also accessed €10 million of new senior funding from the European Fund for Southeast Europe, a programme initiated by German development bank KfW and the European Commission.
