For more than two years Banca Transilvania in Romania has aimed to make small businesses known, to offer visibility to entrepreneurs and their businesses as well as to make their stories heard. As a result, from the 6th of April till the end of May they open the doors of the BT Mic blog for any small business – BT Mic client, who wants to present the business and tell their story of the last year. The initiative aims to support small businesses, promote their businesses, and highlight entrepreneurs who have found solutions to move forward, whether financial support is received or not.
Another initiative to support businesses from scratch was the so-called “Buy from a small business“, launched in September 2020, to be a voice for the small business community.
In the first months after the lockdown, in the spring of 2020, BT Mic offered financing mainly for the current business activity, usual expenses with salaries, state taxes, suppliers, goods for the reopening of the activity.
„Precisely, for this reason, we did not restrict the products as the amount, terms or conditions of granting in general, trying to keep the fast response time to only a few days. At the same time, we accelerated the collaboration we already had with the European Investment Fund to continue the small business loan guarantee program, a program that implicitly facilitates entrepreneurs’ access to financing”, – said Cristina Sindile, General Manager of BT Mic.
Most small businesses have entered the pandemic with an exclusively offline presence. 2020 closed a long cycle of years of prosperity and high consumption with many businesses operating physically in stores. Sales have increased from year to year, and interest in online has been reduced, both by entrepreneurs and consumers.
Many businesses had to reorganize their activity, mainly the distribution channels so that they could continue to reach customers. And in such cases, the financing supported the establishment of the new necessary infrastructure – the opening of online stores or bringing customers to certain marketplaces, the initiation of home delivery of products that until then were consumed in physical locations.
Source: Bank’s Press Release from 06.04.2021
