ABN AMRO last year reviewed 6,000 records of 4,500 clients who had contracted interest rate derivatives in order to establish whether any of the records contained irregularities. We have contacted all of the clients in question and, where necessary, will approach clients pro-actively to offer solutions.
Entrepreneurs will continue to be able to take advantage of the “discount” ABN AMRO has secured on a loan from the European Central Bank (ECB) at least until the end of 2015.
On 30 June, the Netherlands Authority for Consumers & Markets (Autoriteit Consument en Markt, ACM) published a report entitled Concurrentie op de markt voor MKB-financiering (‘competition in the SME loan market’). In its report, the ACM presents a series of findings about the competitive environment in that market.
A group of nine Dutch insurance companies and ABN AMRO have provided the first 75 million in credit to small and medium-sized businesses in the Netherlands through the partnership they set up last June. Loan sums vary from 75,000 to 1 million euros.
2014's final quarter was the first in years not showing a drop in credit demand. On the contrary, the number of credit applications edged up. And the total number of loans granted increased for the second quarter in a row.
Clients with interest rate swaps received a letter this week concerning the review of their swaps.
SME’s funding needs in 2015 will be shifting from refinancing to funding growth and expansion. At 8%, the number of businesses that think they might be needing funding has not changed since last year. On average, SMEs estimate they might need 320,000 euro in funding, which is substantially more than their needs over the past twelve months, when the average amount needed was 200,000 euro. These and other facts can be found in SME funding statistics (‘MKB-Financieringsbarometer’) published by ABN AMRO and the Society for Consumer Research (‘GfK’) today.
Some six thousand ABN AMRO clients in the SME sector with variable-interest loans took out interest swaps at the same time to hedge against rising interest rates. This construction offers businesses certainty about their future interest charges. An interest swaps is not a simple product to understand, and it is important that the bank explains carefully what its features are. Moreover, not every business will find interest swaps to be a suitable solution.
Henk Kamp, the Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs, today presents new plans supporting funding opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises. ABN AMRO is engaged in solid discussions with the Ministry about bank lending to SMEs and helping to design plans to support this particular group of Dutch businesses.
On 28 May, the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) published the results of an investigation into interest-rate swaps. Its report states how many interest-rate swap contracts have been concluded in the Netherlands by SMEs that are not classified as professional clients for the purposes of the Financial Supervision Act (Wft). It also describes when the swap contract may be a problem for such SMEs and when it is not a problem. Our website provides further information on this topic.
Interest-rate swaps have come in for quite a bit of media attention in the past few weeks. This Q&A explains what interest-rate swaps are and why companies use them.
ABN AMRO has noted a rise in the number of loans it is providing to the agricultural sector, with the volume of the loan portfolio growing by a few percentage points in 2013. "We welcomed more than 300 new clients last year," says Pierre Berntsen, Director of Agricultural Companies at ABN AMRO.
