Available Sources of Financing for Small Companies in Croatia in period 2010-2012

In this paper the author presented availability of sources of financing for small companies through the period from 2010 to 2012. According to available information 82% of all financing of small companies comes from banks. This mostly refers to loans, even though all major banks also offer other products but they are rarely used. Research of European Central Bank sho ed that SME’s in Euro area consider that access to bank loans deteriorated. In general, one of the major pressing problems for SME’s in Euro area is access to finance. Although most trends and conclusions of researches for SME’s in Croatia coincide with those in Euro area, most small companies in Croatia don’t consider that availabilit of bank loans deteriorated (onl 14% consider that there as a deterioration). In the period from 2010 to 2012 total bank loans exposure to the SME segment increased for 13% in 2011, and for additional 3% in 2012. Most banks on Croatian financial market offer similar credit lines for the segment of small companies, from short term loans such as working capital loan, revolving loan, overdraft etc. to long term investment loans. During 2011 access to financing for small companies increased through the larger offer of HBOR’s stimulating credit programs (in 2010 there were 11 programs, while in 2011 there were 23 programs). In addition to that, during 2011 the usage of funds from the EU increased significantly (IPARD programs). As a result, in 2011 HBOR increased loan exposure to small companies for 15% compared to 2010. In 2012 HBOR’s loan exposure to small companies increased by 27% compared to 2011 mostly due to more than 100% higher use of EU funds, while number of loan programs remained the same. From available information and researches we can conclude that major source of financing small companies are bank loans that are offered in variety of credit lines, including stimulating HBOR credit lines. Access to financing for small companies improved in observed period which is obvious from increased loan exposure of banks to this segment, increased number of HBOR loan programs and increased amount of issued guarantees from HAMAG Invest.