Large companies have not caused problems to banks, but will not drive up lending, either

The around 100 large companies the NBR views as being of a systemic importance have not had problems in their relationships with commercial banks, despite their turnovers being seriously hurt by the economic downturn, but they resort to bank funding only to a small extent, and therefore they will not play a major role in restarting lending, either. These companies have transferred their cash flow problems to partners only to a low extent amid the crisis and have not generated major payment incidents as they did not have outstanding debts with banks, but they need to be closely watched, though, says Florian Neagu, head of the Macro-prudential Risks office of the NBR's Financial Stability Department. "Systemically important companies have had a better capability to cope with the crisis than the rest of the economy. Though their turnover contracted more than the average, their profitability was still positive. Their capacity to generate cash inflows remained positive, too," Neagu says.