Croatia's state-owned development bank HBOR said on Thursday they approved nearly 1,800 loans in 2021 totaling 7.7 billion kuna (€1 billion), the bank said on Thursday, reporting a profit of 187.1 million kuna (€25 million), an increase of 136 percent from 2020.

HBOR’s total revenue in 2021 amounted to 728.64 million kuna, its expenditure to 541.56 million kuna and profits to 187.08 million kuna. The profit was 107.74 million kuna or 136 percent higher than in 2020, which the bank said was “mostly owing to an increase in revenues from interests, a drop in interest expenses, a drop in impairment losses and loan loss provisions as well as an increase in other revenues.”

Data from the HBOR’s audited annual financial report for 2021 showed that more than 70 percent of all loans approved for businesses as part of government’s measures to combat the economic consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, came from HBOR, either via loans or loan payment schemes. In 2021, business owners had at their disposal “numerous Covid-19-related schemes,” including programs for HBOR financing at 0 percent interest.

Through those schemes, HBOR approved more than 2.1 billion kuna in loans. Also, to encourage commercial banks to approve new liquidity loans, HBOR offered liquidity credit schemes for exporters, and issued bank guarantees, assuming up to 100 percent risk for loan repayment. By the end of 2021, HBOR provided guarantees for 3 billion kuna worth of new liquidity loans for enterpreneurs.

HBOR notes that the most numerous loan beneficiaries in 2021 were again small companies, which used 1,108 loans. In 2021, HBOR supported Croatian exporters with more than 700 loans in the amount of more than 4 billion kuna, HBOR says.

It noted that in 2021 it had worked intensively on “developing several financial instruments” as part of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, worth a total of 1.925 billion kuna. neither HBOR nor the state news agency Hina, which re-published the bank’s press release, did not clarify what these were.

“Last year HBOR launched a project to switch its operations towards sustainable financing and green transition, for which funding was approved by the EC,” the bank said without clarifying, adding that “over the past period” it “launched numerous initiatives to develop venture capital and equity markets.”

(€1 = 7.55 kuna)