The financial system has assisted more than ninety thousand micro, small and medium-sized enterprises for an amount of more than $140,000 million, and has another $21,761 million in process, through the line of credit with a subsidized rate provided by the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic.
The credit supply has been growing over the weeks since the entry into the Preventive and Mandatory Social Isolation ordered by the national government and the projection is that the total of the line will be placed for about $220,000 million.
In the second half of April, the amounts disbursed rose from $60,000 million to almost $140,000 million. The same happened with the approved credits that went from $86,000 million to $166,000 million. This implies that at the end of April 75% of the available credit was approved.
Part of the initial delay was associated with the need for companies to provide the information required to comply with current legal regulations, given that these are subsidized lines of credit and not non-refundable subsidies.
Fogar provided guarantees for 92 billion pesos for the entities to have loans and so far the national entities disbursed $8,100 million, the ABAPPRA entities did so for $6,300 million and the foreign entities for $11,400 million pesos.
In addition to the supply of credit at a rate of 24%, there was a substantial drop, in the order of 50 points, in the cost of financing for all companies, which can now access different traditional lines with rates that average 35%.
A particularity of the line subsidized at 24% is that companies used it to cover checks issued before the ASPO, allowing the portfolio of checks rejected due to lack of funds to be reduced by half.
According to a study on the destination of the line of credit subsidized at 24%, the amounts disbursed reached $141,000 million, which were allocated 30% to the payment of salaries, 13% to the coverage of checks and 50% for other working capital. These three destinations accounted for 93% of the disbursements. On average, each firm received $1.5 million.
In terms of the number assisted, they exceeded 91,000 companies. 44% used the funds for salary payments, 13% for deferred check coverage and 42% for other working capital. About 240 companies received credit for health services.
Of the $141,000 million disbursed, national capital banks accounted for 42% ($59,000 million), with two entities that account for 72.3% of this amount: Banco Galicia (44%), Banco Macro (28.2%).
The entities grouped in ABAPPRA disbursed 39.3% ($40,800 million, where Banco Nación (53.5%) and Banco Credicoop (15%) stood out. It was followed by the Bank of the Province of Córdoba (10%); the Bank of the Province of Buenos Aires (6.6%) and the Bank of the Province of Neuquén (3.7%).
Foreign capital entities paid 29% ($40,600 million), concentrated 62.5% in Santander Río (38.7%) and BBVA (23.8%).
The credit has a fixed rate of 24 percent for one year with a grace period of three months and as a requirement, companies must have the MIPME certificate, whose process begins on the AFIP website and is granted by the Ministry of Productive Development.
The availability of the FOGAR guarantee and the pace of approval of the lines allow us to estimate that the quota of the credit line of $220,000 million will be met.
