Businesses will not be left without subsidized loans 

English2021. júl. 13.Növekedés.hu

Although the central bank will not increase the budget of the Funding for Growth Program ‘Hajrá’ (NHP Hajrá), the schemes of the Széchenyi Card Program have been renewed, so state-subsidized loans with an interest rate of less than 0.5 percent are still available to businesses. The new products are already available at OTP Bank.

NHP Hajrá has played a huge role in relieving the economic impact of the coronavirus epidemic and in helping the reopening of the economy, as 

roughly 40,000 enterprises were granted state-subsidized, soft loans from the 3,000 billion forint budget.

One third of the loans were new investment loans or leases, more than half were working capital loans and the rest were transactions replacing previous investment loans. OTP Group was one of the first to make this new product available last spring, and the bank went on to contract more than 12,000 clients for 28 percent of the NHP Hajrá budget. 

However, businesses will not be left without subsidized loans even after the exhaustion of the budget, as the products of the Széchenyi Card Program were renewed as of 1 July, offering loans to companies with a fixed maximum 0.5 percent interest rate. 

 The economy has restarted and businesses in several sectors have been facing a huge demand, so the financial solutions of OTP Bank can be of great help to them not only in development projects, but also for buying stock, hiring workforce or overcoming temporary payment difficulties. The new subsidized loans are also available already, which can be very effective in boosting economic growth in the second half of the year

said Bernadett Dancsné Engler, Head of the Micro and Small Business Department of OTP Bank.

The Széchenyi Card Restart Program has 5 constructions that are available at the moment: 

  • an overdraft facility with a fixed interest rate of 0.1%, up to a maximum of HUF 100 million; 
  • a free-use working capital loan with a fixed interest rate of 0.2%, up to HUF 250 million, for a term of 3 years; 
  • an investment loan with a fixed interest rate of 0.5%, up to HUF 1 billion, for a term of 10 years; 
  • with an interest-free tourism card aimed at enterprises in the tourism sector, up to HUF 250 million for a maximum of 3 years; 
  • an investment loan for agricultural enterprises, a loan amount of up to HUF 1 billion, for a maximum of 10 years, with a fixed interest rate of 0.5%. 

From the previous schemes, MFB’s interest-free Restart Loan, which is designed to mitigate the effects of the pandemic crisis, continues to be available at OTP Bank. 

At the MFB Points operated by OTP Bank, more than 3,000 businesses have inquired about the scheme since its introduction on March 8. 

To date, applications have been received by OTP Bank in the value of over HUF 25.5 billion, with an average claim of HUF 8.4 million. 

In addition to the soft loans, OTP Bank's own market-based financial solutions are also available, which can provide businesses with facilities specifically meeting their needs, regardless of the company size and its scope of activity, and with less strict conditions than the subsidized loans.