OREANDA-NEWS. January 24, 2012. Five per cent of starting enterprises are able to sell products or services on foreign markets already during their first year of activity. SEB’s statistics on foreign proceeds for 2011 show that in the second year of activity the share of enterprises receiving foreign proceeds has already doubled, approaching ten per cent, reported the press-centre of SEB.

“While in 2009 a majority of new enterprises operating internationally made payments to a foreign country, then now income from export exceeds that. The summary for the previous year indicates that the number of starting enterprises receiving foreign proceeds exceeds the number of starting enterprises making foreign payments by 26 per cent.

Therefore, export markets are not the exclusive domain of large enterprises, and smaller enterprises also need special solutions for operating on foreign markets. In the year which just began we will pay great attention to such solutions, and special settlement packages for enterprises are the first step to supporting our active business clients,” said Eerika Vaikmae-Koit, Head of Retail Banking of SEB.

The enterprises that began operation in 2011 drew attention with their increased operating activity. 17.6 per cent of the enterprises established in 2011 were active users of bank transfers during the same year. It exceeds the same number for 2010 by four per cent and for 2009 by eight per cent.

“The share of enterprises that remained passive after being established was significantly lower in 2011, remaining at 19.5%. Compared to 2009 the share of new enterprises remaining passive has decreased 50%. It means that enterprises are not established as sleeping companies, but for actual commercial activities. It could be said that simplifying establishment of a company has been efficient and starting a business is available to everyone who wishes that,” said Vaikmae-Koit.

SEB offers new business clients a settlement package that takes into account the needs of starting enterprises, and during the first year of activity bank services, including SEPA transfers in the Internet Bank within the EU, are free of charge.

SEB also has interesting offers available to already operating enterprises – they can choose between various settlement packages where all transfers within the bank are free of charge. The fixed monthly fee for a package includes a certain number of domestic or EU transfers, Visa Business debit cards without the monthly maintenance fee, favourable offers from RSA Kindlustus for property insurance for the enterprise and other services.