The report by everis “Financial services for the segment of small and midsize businesses in Spain” analyses 2,400 SMBs

THE FINANCIAL CONDITIONS ARE THE MAIN CONDITIONING FACTOR FOR SMBS TO CHOOSE THEIR FINANCIAL INSTITUTION

• There are important differences of presence of main bank by geographical area and business sector

• Midsized institutions and savings banks gain positioning as institutions alternative to the large groups

• The services with greatest potential for growth are factoring and financial information

Madrid, 24 November 2004.- everis has presented today its report “Financial services for the segment of small and midsized businesses in Spain”, in which it analyses these products through interviews with more than 2,400 SMBs. In accordance with this analysis, charges are the main factor that the small and midsize companies take into account when choosing their financial institution. The report also concludes that factoring and financial information are the services given to SMBs with greatest potential for growth.

In this report everis aims to offer banks and savings banks opportunities to build loyalty in small and midsize businesses, optimize their product and services portfolio and adapt them more to the characteristics of these customers. This exhaustive analysis is also a useful tool for optimizing business activity and the action with SMBs thanks to the geographic aspect.

60% of SMBs base themselves of financial conditions to choose a new financial institution

The financial conditions decisively influence the choice of a new bank with which to work, as almost 60% of the SMBs surveyed admit. Catalonia and Balearic Islands are the Autonomous communities with greatest sensitivity to financial conditions. In these areas, 31% of companies mention charges and 32% the interest rate as main conditioning factors. At the other extreme, the Basque Country is the Autonomous Community where SMBs are most loyal to their banks or savings banks and less inclined to change banks for these reasons.

43.5% of SMBs work with a second financial institution

There is high propensity to try new financial institutions. 43.5% of SMBs have started financing through a new bank or savings bank in the last two years, although only 38% of them devote more than 10% of their financing volume to this second institution.

SMBs in the Education and Healthcare (72%) and Retail trade (67%) sectors, as well as those established in the areas of the Basque Country (60%) and Castile and León (59%) are those with closest relations with their main bank or savings bank.

Midsized institutions and savings banks are gaining positioning as institutions alternative to the large groups.

Contracting levels

The report by everis has also analysed the characteristics of the financial products which are most used by Spanish SMBs which are: Discount facilities, Credit Lines and Leasing.

Six out of every ten SMBs have contracted a discount facility, the companies in the Central and East coast areas being those which most use this type of finance.

With regard to interest rates, the highest ones correspond to companies in the sectors of Finance, IT and R+D and Transport and Communications. By geographic areas, SMBs from the northeast have taken out lower interest rates, whilst the highest correspond to companies in Castile and León and the East coast.

Factoring and financial information, the new financial services which are most highly valued

The new financial services which are most highly valued by SMBs are Factoring and Financial Information. Two thirds of the companies exceed 125,000 euros per month of instalment sales and in third of them the customer payment collection takes up a considerable part of the employee’s working day. The functionality which arouses most interest among SMBs is financial information on companies.

With regard to the Public Tender and Subsidy service, the study on the functionalities highlights that the “advice on how to obtain public subsidies is that which is of most interest and used by SMBs.”

Although the knowledge of the Internet and eBusiness service is very widespread, small and midsize businesses still have certain doubts concerning its development. In general, they do not show much interest in these services, whose level of use is still very low. Only one out of every three companies interested in and familiarized with the online banking services uses it.