Banks are ready to boost crediting of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), bankers polled by Interfax-Ukraine have said.

"I think that now the share of SME in portfolios is small, maybe 20%, but the share will grow. The potential is huge… There is prospect for development in this segment, and banks go there where there is a prospect for development, while the large corporate business would face stagnation," FUIB Board Chairman Serhiy Chernenko said.

"Work with small enterprises is becoming attractive for banks. Today some 15-20 banks offer micro-crediting programs for SME, but we expect that gradually the number of these financial institutions and crediting will grow," bank Credit Dnepr Board Chairman Olena Malynska said.

Malynska said that banks would mitigate requirements for crediting: the quality of risk assessment would improve and the procedure for assessing the credit application will be facilitated, thanks to improvement of technological processes.

She said that high deposit rates and the refinancing rate of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) are still restricting factors for affordable financing. However, banks have gradually started to reduce deposit rates.

"Without any external shocks in the future, forecasts for the macro-economic situation for this year are rather optimistic. This would allow seriously cutting the refinancing rate by the end of 2016, with investments to support Ukrainian business becoming affordable," the banker said.