COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF LENDING IN THE REPUBLIC OF CROATIA AND THE EUROPEAN UNION : Graduate paper

U radu su prikazane banke kao najznačajnije financijske institucije u financijskim sustavima većine zemalja. Središnja banka svake zemlje Europske unije ima nadzor nad poslovnim bankama u zemlji u kojoj djeluje, dok nad samom središnjom bankom nadzor ima krovna banka Europske unije. Kada se govori o poslovnim bankama, dio su svakodnevnog poslovanja gospodarskih subjekata u zemlji u kojoj posluju. Sukladno tome, svrha rada je prikazati teorijska i praktična znanja iz područja bankarskog sustava te kreditnih poslova na temelju stručne literature i analize sekundarnih podataka. U radu je u teorijskom dijelu opisan bankarski sustav te ključni pojmovi za razumijevanje istoga uz glavne značajke kredita i kreditiranja u Republici Hrvatskoj. Predstavljene su funkcije i vrste banaka te su definirani pojmovi kredita, vrsta kredita i uvjeta kreditiranja, kamatnih stopa te valutnih klauzula. U praktičnom dijelu rada usporedno su analizirani uvjeti stambenog i gotovinskog kreditiranja u odabranim grupacijama banaka u Republici Hrvatskoj i Republici Sloveniji, Intesa Sanpaolo i Addiko Grupa u obliku informativnih izračuna za određeni iznos kredita. Informativni izračuni su temeljeni na podacima preuzetima sa službenih mrežnih stranica promatranih banaka za svibanj 2023. godine. Provedena je i analiza kretanja kamatnih stopa na odabrane kredite za razdoblje od 2018. do 2022. godine te je dana projekcija kretanja kamata za razdoblje od 2023. do 2027. godine. Na temelju provedenih analiza donesen je zaključak kako je Republika Hrvatska u odnosu na Republiku Sloveniju i cijelokupno Euro područje povoljnija opcija za ugovaranje kredita u odabranim bankama.The paper presents banks as the most important institutions in the financial systems of most countries. The central bank of each European Union country supervises commercial banks in the country in which it operates, while the central bank itself is supervised by the umbrella bank of the European Union. When talking about commercial banks, they are part of the daily operations of economic entities in the country where they operate. Accordingly, the purpose of the paper is to present theoretical and practical knowledge in the field of the banking system and credit operations based on professional literature and analysis of secondary data. In the paper, the theoretical part describes the banking system and the key terms for understanding it, along with the main features of credit and lending in the Republic of Croatia. The functions and types of banks are presented and the concepts of loans, types of loans and lending conditions, interest rates and currency clauses are defined. In the practical part of the work, the conditions of housing and cash lending in selected groups of banks in the Republic of Croatia and the Republic of Slovenia, Intesa Sanpaolo and Addiko Group were analyzed in the form of informative calculations for a certain amount of credit. Informative calculations are based on data taken from the official websites of the observed banks for May 2023. An analysis of the trend of interest rates on selected loans for the period from 2018 to 2022 was also carried out, and a projection of the trend of interest rates for the period from 2023 to 2027 was given. On the basis of the conducted analyses, it was concluded that the Republic of Croatia is a more favorable option for contracting loans in selected banks compared to the Republic of Slovenia and the entire Euro area