Emphasis on financing and supporting small and medium-sized enterprises, which make up the largest part of the Greek economy and, accordingly, have the lowest loans in the banking system, along with the digitalization of their products and services.

The Bank prioritizes the development of healthy entrepreneurship through an integrated support system for small and medium-sized enterprises through financing and advisory guidance on the implementation of green development projects, digital transformation, innovation and extroversion, thus preparing for the next business day.

NBG’s strategy was presented at the Business Banking Forum held at Megaro Mela and over the past three years the company has provided €1.5 billion in new capital to SMEs, increasing the bank’s share of the new business financing market to 26% year-on-year. 2022 and 30% from the beginning of 2023 to today.

During his speech at the conference, the managing director of the National Bank, Pavlos Mylonas, argued that “the Greek economy is experiencing a rare positive moment, as it develops at a high pace, becomes more competitive and open, while foreign funds look at the country with interest.” Mr. Mylonas pointed to the important steps of progress made by Greek SMEs in recent years and mentioned the impressive investments they have made in technologies that promote extroversion and development. According to the NBG study:

• 54% of the sector forecast sales growth in 2023 and 59% for the next three years (compared to 46% of the sector with sales growth in the previous three years).

About 865,000 small and medium-sized enterprises of all industries operate in our country.

• Elements of uncertainty relate mainly to the cost of energy and raw materials (63%-65% of the sector report high impact) and secondarily to difficulty finding staff and weak demand (46% and 43% respectively).

• Despite the challenges of the times, companies’ financial health is showing signs of resilience as the share of companies facing liquidity problems fell to 8% in the sector from 10% in the previous half.

It should be noted that in our country there are about 865,000 small and medium-sized enterprises from all sectors that play an important role in increasing GDP, employment and, more broadly, in a healthy economic structure, since they represent approximately 99% of all enterprises. , employs approximately 55% of the country’s workforce and contributes approximately 38% of value added. Although individual entrepreneurs prevail over them (80%), the largest share of turnover (about 60%) falls on companies of various organizational and legal forms (SA, OE, EE, Ltd., etc.).

At the same conference, National Bank Retail Business Director General Christina Theofilidis emphasized that the NBG strategy “combines the human face with the technological avant-garde”, noting that “the bank is investing significant resources to highlight and support innovative and start-up businesses to develop entrepreneurship and create ecosystems with cooperation and synergy for better and more direct market access.” Based on this, he organized a nationwide network of consultants to provide advice on SME finance programs and solutions for their needs. “We work with 200,000 small and medium-sized enterprises with 450 professional consultants throughout Greece, offering quality services and simple procedures,” emphasized Ms. Theofilidis.

At the same time, the bank has shifted to dedicated products and digital services for easy and fast service, and entered into agreements with innovative IT companies based on NBG support and further cooperation with SMEs. In terms of digital transformation, the National Bank ranks first among Greek banks and among the top 20 banks in the world in terms of the opportunities offered by digital banking.