• The increase was driven by a higher volume of export and import financing, which rose by 30%
  • The bank has increased its active foreign trade customer base by 9.2% in the last 12 months
  • The most important Spanish regions in terms of the volume of foreign trade was generated by companies in the Region of Madrid (€2.3 billion), Catalonia (€1.076 billion) and the Region of Valencia (€655 million)

Bankia provided nearly €5.7 billion to help finance the foreign trade activities of Spanish companies during the first six months of the year, a year-on-year increase of 22.4% compared to €4.655 billion for the same period last year.

Bankia supported companies' foreign trade activities in two ways - by providing import and export finance, and by granting guarantees to Spanish companies, which are fundamental for participating in international projects.

In the case of the former, import and export finance jumped by 30% during the first six months of the year, from €3.57 billion to €4.63 billion, while Bankia also granted €1.07 billion in international guarantees to companies during the period, in line with the figures from the first half of 2016.

The increase in financing during the period was achieved after the bank managed to expand its active foreign trade customer base by 9.2% in the last 12 months.

By autonomous region

By region, Bankia granted €2.3 billion to companies in the Region of Madrid to finance foreign trade activities in the first half of the year, a 19% increase year-on-year.

It was followed by companies in Catalonia and the Region of Valencia, with €1.076 billion and €655 million and increases of 35% and 14% respectively.

Bankia supports the internationalisation of companies through a wide range of products and services. The bank can offer companies a variety of payment methods to facilitate their international purchases and sales, as well as documentary credits. It also offers facilities such as international confirming, factoring and forfaiting to help companies finance their working capital needs in the short-term for making international purchases and sales.

The bank also has various structured financing products to finance investments or to develop projects that may be tendered outside of Spain in the medium and long-term.

Bankia therefore offers its customers a personalised service through its foreign trade specialists that operate across the whole of its commercial network. It also has a dedicated foreign trade telephone support service (Línea Experta Comex) and an internet service exclusively for dealing with foreign trade related customer enquiries and operations, among other initiatives.

Bankia SA published this content on 04 September 2017 and is solely responsible for the information contained herein.
Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 11 September 2017 10:28:10 UTC.

Original documenthttp://www.bankia.com/en/communication/in-the-news/press-releases/bankia-provided-nearly-57-billion-to-support-companies-foreign-trade-activities-to-june-a-22-increase.html

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