98
Another cause of secondary insolvency was poor legislation, which (especially in the early days before a bankruptcy law was adopted75) did not give companies enough options to enforce their claims. The strongly monopolistic structure (inherited from the centrally planned economy) also played a role, as companies often had no alternative markets and were dependent on the survival of their sole customer. The insolvency in the Czech economy in the early 1990s also had macroeconomic causes—declining economic efficiency combined with budget spending cuts in 1993.76 The problem of widespread secondary insolvency in the Czech economy reemerged in 2008.77 More and more firms got into difficulties paying their debts on time and the volume of overdue debt increased sharply.78 The cause of this snowball effect was similar to that in the early 1990s—a sudden decrease in banks’ willingness to lend (albeit for different reasons—this time fears about the oncoming crisis).79 A firm has options to deal with secondary insolvency: • insurance with a specialized insurance company offering bad debt insurance cover. However, there are very few such specialized insurers at present80 and the low supply is leading to relatively high premiums; • a bank bridging loan to deal with problems caused by unpaid claims. The problem is that the bank will often not grant such credit.81 Even if it does, the creditor will be left with both a doubtful debt (with high collection costs) and a new loan with the bank; 75 See Hlaváček, J., Tůma, Z.: Bankruptcy in the Czech Economy. In Bankruptcy and the Post-Communist Economies of East Central Europe, K. Mizsei. New York: Institute for East-West Studies, 1993. 76 See Bulíř, A.: Platební neschopnost: problém “reálné” nebo “peněžní” ekonomiky? Politická ekonomie 42, 2(1994): 155–70. 77 See Mertlík, P.: Česku hrozí druhotná platební neschopnost firem. (http://www.radio.cz/cz /clanek/111897 [08-01-2009 07:00 UTC]), or Dvořák, J.: Platit faktury včas se moc nenosí. (http:// www.mesec.cz/clanky/platit-faktury-vcas-se-moc-nenosi/ [15-02-2009 08:11 UTC]). 78 According to Petr Kužel, President of the Czech Chamber of Commerce (see http://www.komora.cz /hk-cr/hlavni-zpravy/art_28565 [16-02-2009 11:20 UTC]), “According to the latest figures claims were up by 40 per cent and past-due claims by as much as 50 per cent at the start of 2009.” 79 “Banks bear part of the blame for the current situation. With their restrictive policies and choking of funds for the business sector they are making the situation worse for businesses. It’s a vicious circle and there’s no escape.” (ibid.) 80 At the start of 2009 only four insurers were providing such insurance in the Czech Republic: Atradius, Coface Austria Kreditversicherung, Euler Hermes and Komerční úvěrová pojišťovna EGAP. 81 The government also feels that credit needs to be made more available to SMEs. In February 2009 it increased the bank loan guarantee capacity of the Czech-Moravian Guarantee and Development Bank by CZK 3 billion. This is intended to make banks more willing to lend. For this instrument to be effective, the amount needs to be raised considerably.
Ukázka elektronické knihy, UID: KOS198233