Romanian factoring market up by 12 pct in H1 close to EUR 2 bln

The Romanian factoring market went up by 12 percent in the first semester of this year compared with the same period of 2016, close to EUR 2 billion, according to the data of the Romanian Association of Factoring (ARF), based on company data.

“The increase is consistent overall, but the figures could have been by 5-6 percentage points higher if the economy had benefited also from an increased level of investments, not only from consumption. The capital expenses are still at the minimum level; there are still not enough funds allocated to strategic projects in infrastructure or energy and the absorption of European funds is at a very low level, affecting very much the economic development in the following years,” said Bogdan Rosu, the president of ARF.

Overall, the internal factoring operations registered an increase by over 14 percent. The most significant growth in percentages was registered in the reverse factoring, by 58 percent, contributing to the maintenance on the first position of the internal factoring without regress, with a volume of over EUR 1.25 billion.

According to the company, the reverse factoring is a product more and more demanded in the last years, especially in the big companies’ segment.

„The typical candidate for a reverse factoring product can be a key account who has the finance initiative of his suppliers (from the internal or external market) via factoring. They will have the bills paid before the term via a system of his clients, together with the financing institution (bank or IFN). Thus, the problem of expanded payment terms are taken over by the financing institution,” says Rosu.

On the first place regarding the volume of administered debts via factoring is the FMCG field, with a growth by 40 percent, followed by IT in increase by 16.8 percent and constructions with a growth by 10 percent, compared with the first semester of 2016.