According to the Latvian Lessors’ Association (LAA), the leasing and factoring market
in Latvia has grown 11.8 per cent this year.
Members of LAA are Hanza Lizings, Unilizings, Nordea Finance Latvia, Hipolizings and Vereinsleasing Riga that represent 80 per cent of the total Latvian leasing and factoring
portfolio. The rest is owned by banks.
The president of LAA, Maris Skujins, said that the two main obstacles restricting the development of the sector are excluding leasing from sources of co-financing for EU funds and the provision in the corporate income tax act that limits possibilities to deduct leasing and factoring interest payments from taxable income.
The country’s factoring portfolio increased by 28.3 per cent year-on-year in nine months. Factoring market was growing very fast the first half a year after Latvia joined the EU. At the same time only 5.6 per cent of Latvian companies are using factoring services.
