Oprescu, Alpha Bank: State debts to SMEs can be discounted by banks

The discounting of the state’s debts to SMEs by banks can be a mechanism towards improving companies’ cash flow and towards limiting the arrearage, according to Sergiu Oprescu, chief executive of Alpha Bank, one of the leading banks on he Romanian market. However, in order for this to happen, the Ministry of Finance would have to articulate a transparent monitoring and approval system for the sums that SMEs have to collect, with the state’s debts to be included in a special register. “This can be easily achieved if the government assigns due dates to the debts it has to the corporate sector, and if the Ministry of Finance sets up one single register, kept in a transparent manner. This would enable debt to be discounted by the banking system with an immediate impact on the cash flow of companies,” Oprescu explains. Despite commitments of the Ministry of Finance to reduce the stock of debt to taxpayers, banks say many clients in various sectors still complain that they are not collecting their money and so are, in turn, unable to make payments to suppliers or to banks. President Traian Basescu has also recently asked the Ministry of Finance to accelerate VAT repayment. Sergiu Oprescu says a plan aimed at a lending revival on the SME segment should also include guaranteeing co-financing. The SME Credit Guarantee Fund has already launched a lending product with Banca Transilvania, for which clients applying for funding no longer need guarantees, and is preparing short-term credit lines and medium-term investment credits with the BCR.