The purpose of this paper is to analyze the loss given default (LGD) determinants in case of a typical loan portfolio consisting of SME loans in a commercial bank operating in one of the quickly developing banking markets, i.e. in Slovenia. Accurate LGD estimates of defaulted bank claims are important for provisioning reserves for credit losses, calculating adequate risk capital and determining fair pricing risky bank loans. Findings suggest that reliable LGD estimates can be produced by discounting expected loan related future cash lows and that explanatory factors, such as type of collateral, type of industrial sector, last available loan rating, size of the debt and loan maturity satisfactorily explicate variability of the LGD variable in the specific banking market. All the results are not only relevant to the impairment policy determination and capital adequacy calculation in the specific bank, but also to the evaluation of SME loans characteristics in developing markets.