The rate of non-performing loans in the corporate sector reached approximately 5.1%, and in the SME sector it is 6.1%, stated Gabriela Folcuț, executive director of the Romanian Banking Association (ARB).
„We have around 931,000 companies in Romania, 99.8% are SMEs, that is SMEs today, which generate about 60% of the value added in the economy and employ 68% of the employees. If we look at the structure of all the companies we will see that 94%P3T of them are micro companies, that is up to 9 employees maximum. And the value added they generate is only 26%. At the opposite pole, large companies represent 0.2% in number and generate 40% in value added. The problem, because of these deficits, risks related to geopolitical, related to high inflation, we have almost eight months, or maybe even more, in which the inflation rate has been positioned at almost 10% at an annual rate, it is very true, it affects us all, but because of these risks we see a deterioration in the health of companies. And what are we seeing? An increase in supplier arrears of over 201TPTP3T. An increase in the rate of non-performing loans within companies, about 5.1%. If we look at the SME sector, it is the riskiest, 6.1%. We see an increase in insolvencies”, explained Gabriela Folcuț, according to Agerpres.
She mentioned that in the last quarter of 2025, an increase in the appetite for financing in the corporate sector was observed – a significant rise for euro-denominated lending.
„However, the first two months that we have available on the National Bank's statistics on the evolution of new loans, as far as companies are concerned, we see a decrease compared to the same period last year. Basically, in January and February, the amount of new loans granted to companies amounted to RON 11.4 billion, down by 4.5% compared to January-February 2025. The affect on companies' financial health is obviously also reflected in their ability and willingness to access credit. If we look at the figures, we see that only 5% of loan applications are rejected, but on various criteria, either the balance sheet is not satisfactory or the amount allocated to the bank is not up to expectations and the company refuses to access further. What is certain is that at the moment, the loss given default, the LGD (Loss Given Default n.r.) is somewhere around 331TP33T, up by 3 percentage points, in Q4 2025 versus Q3 2025. Obviously, we have also analyzed where we stand from the perspective of companies' access to finance, SME's access to finance and we are looking at the survey conducted biannually by the National Bank, which analyzes the top 10 pressing issues that companies are facing and access to finance is ranked as the 9th out of 10 issues. What are SMEs particularly concerned about? Production and labor costs, taxation, competition and a well-trained workforce”stated Gabriela Folcuț.
She also said that the sectors that banks currently consider risky to lend to, in general, are: construction, industry, agriculture, and trade.