Companies’ Bank Lending in European Union: Principles, Forms and a Brief Analysis of Competition

Banking role in ensuring a proper functioning of the financial and monetary mechanism by facilitating performance of the cash flows in correspondence with the flows generated by the companies was the reason that bank (creditor) – company (debtor) relation was on a permanently attention of theorists, politicians and practitioners from all around the world. The countries from European Union have gone through a significant economic and financial transformation during the last decade. The purpose of this study is to examine the main components of the companies’ bank lending and also to analyse the evolution of the competition in terms of bank lending, in European Union, during 2005-2009 period. Section 1 presents the general principles of the companies’ bank lending; the second section researches the main forms of bank loans. The third one analysis the evolution of banking competition and the last one concludes.