Financing of small and medium – sized enterprises by bank loans during the coronavirus crisis

In a market economy, small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) play an important and irreplaceable role. They need funds for their activities, which can be obtained from internal and external sources. Lack of own sources of finance can be solved by using of bank loans or alternative sources of financing. In the article, we evaluate the financing of SMEs in the Slovak Republic at the times of the coronavirus crisis with a focus on financing by bank loans. We found that the dynamics of credit growth maintained stable from the point of view of the corporate sector as a whole, but the availability of financing was limited for riskier groups of companies.