OREANDA-NEWS. February 08, 2012. Approximately three-quarters of Estonian companies are micro companies with annual sales of less than EUR 100,000 and according to SEB’s experience, these companies make up to 20 bank payments a month, reported the press-centre of SEB.

Although the share of large companies is smaller, the intensity of their payments is higher: 15 per cent of companies make between 20 and 50 payments a month, 5 per cent make between 50 and 100 payments a month and 5 per cent of companies make over 100 payments a month.

Micro companies are characterised by their connection to one bank and their number of internal payments is twice as high as the number of domestic payments while for companies which make more than 100 payments, this ratio is 1.4 internal payments per one domestic payment. “Once companies start to grow, they will become more fragmented among various banks, the costs of bank services will be optimised and payments will not be made at the home bank but rather at a bank selected by a transaction partner. We wish that companies need not select between fragmented banking relationships and optimisation of their costs and therefore, we have introduced our Plans to the market, enabling home bank clients to significantly save on their commission fees. Today, 1,500 companies prefer wholesale purchasing”, said SEB’s Head of Retail Banking Eerika Vaikmae-Koit.

Of SEB’s four settlement Plans for businesses, the most popular one is the Plan S where all internal payments and up to 20 domestic or SEPA payments are free of charge – it has been chosen by 70 per cent of those who have entered into Plan agreements. Four per cent of those who have entered into the agreements have chosen the Plan XL with the most extensive range of benefits, including up to 200 free domestic or SEPA payments.

SEB offers its new business clients a free settlement Plan for the whole year. At the end of the year, the benefits to SEB clients will continue according to the volume of companies’ transactions – they can choose from among various settlement Plans where all internal payments are free of charge. The Plan’s fixed monthly fee includes a certain number of domestic or intra-EU payments, Visa Business debit cards without monthly maintenance fees, special offers for companies’ property insurance from RSA Kindlustus and other services.