LONDON & WARSAW, Poland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--GE Capital, one of Europe’s leading providers of mid-market and SME finance, has launched a factoring platform in Poland called Factoring BPH, via Bank BPH, part of the GE Capital group. Factoring BPH has been established to meet increasing demand from Polish businesses seeking to improve their financial liquidity through alternative forms of finance.
Factoring, a form of accounts receivable (AR) finance, allows businesses to access finance secured against the value of unpaid invoices, providing short-term working capital. By selling invoices at a discount, businesses can gain instant access to cash, while the factoring company takes on the responsibility and risk for securing payment from the customer.
Businesses using accounts receivable products can also help to increase employment and GDP growth. A recent econometric report* commissioned by GE Capital, found that the increased use of accounts receivable (AR) finance by SMEs in the EU’s four biggest economies; Germany, France, the UK and Italy, could also have wide economic benefits, providing additional funding and working capital to facilitate the creation of almost one million new jobs by 2020 and a combined additional GDP growth of €53 billion per quarter.
Factoring is one of the fastest growing business finance solutions in Poland with 20% average annual growth in usage for the past five years1. Across Europe, €990bn of AR finance was provided to businesses during 2010 - an increase of 17.6% on the previous year.
Isabel Fernandez, Chief Commercial Officer for GE Capital in EMEA said: “The wealth of factoring experience within GE Capital, as a leader in accounts receivable finance and pan-European lending, has enabled us to introduce a strong offer to the Polish market at a time of dynamic growth. As part of our plans to expand our suite of commercial finance products and services, we are confident that we can support customers and become one of the leading players in the Polish factoring market.”
GE Capital currently provides financing to more than half a million companies across EMEA and in the year to date has increased lending to SMEs increasing by more than 25 per cent. Since 2004 GE Capital has provided more than $500BN of working capital to European SMEs, servicing 30 million invoices per year Expanding across key markets in Central in Eastern Europe is a key part of GE Capital’s current growth strategy.
Ends
1 Source: The Polish Factors Association http://www.faktoring.pl/eng/index.php
* ‘The AR factor: The economic value of Accounts Receivable Factors to Europe`s leading economies”, published by GE Capital in October 2011, is available at: http://www.gecapital.eu/en/arfactor/reports/GE_executive-summary_EN.pdf
About GE Capital
GE Capital EMEA is one of the region’s largest commercial and consumer lenders with over $80 billion in assets, 19,000 employees, more than five million customers and operations in 19 countries. For businesses, particularly small and mid-market firms, GE Capital EMEA provides a range of specialised financial products and services including receivables financing, distribution finance, acquisition finance and commercial loans and leases to support customer needs. And, thanks to GE’s 130+ years’ experience in energy, aviation, healthcare and media industries, we know how to make business assets work harder. In addition, GE Capital EMEA serves millions of consumers through its award-winning retail banks in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Nordics, Poland and Switzerland. For more information, please visit: www.gecapital.eu
About Bank BPH
Bank BPH offers products and services to individual customers, SMEs and corporate clients. The Bank’s rich offering includes inter alia: loans, with cash loans and mortgage loans, individual accounts, savings accounts, deposit accounts and credit cards. Bank BPH also provides integrated brokerage services, treasury banking and asset management via BPH TFI, its subsidiary. Bank BPH has been present in the Polish market for over 20 years and is a public company listed at the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Bank BPH is part of the GE Capital group.