The guarantees that the reciprocal guarantee companies (SGR) granted to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to access financing reached $218,296 million in 2021, which represented a growth of 70% compared to the previous yearaccording to official figures.
Also, last year saw an increase in the number of micro-SMEs, the smallest segment of the economy, that had access to financing through SGR.
According to the latest report released by the Secretariat of Small and Medium Enterprises (Sepyme), in 2021 assisted MSMEs totaled 21,785; which meant 43.85% more than the previous yearwith the particularity that 8,653 (39.71% of the total) received financing for the first time.
The detail of the report says that in 2020 the SGR granted 197,533 guarantees for S 127,732,464,352; and in 2021 they were 196,442 for $218,296,240,543.
“Facilitating access to financing for SMEs is a central objective for the generation of genuine employment, growth and development of the country. It is essential to deepen a strategy in this sense, virtuously articulating actors that range from the State, the financial sector and companies,” the president of Guarantee, Gabriel González, told Télam.
For his part, the head of Crecer, Rafael Galante, maintained that “two were the most notable initiatives for the SGR industry during 2021.”
He specified that these were “the reactivation of the Productive Investment Lines (LIP) of the Central Bank and the launch by the Ministry of Productive Development of financing lines oriented in particular to the reactivation of the SME segment through Fondepexclusive for micro and small”.
“This last one was a success in every sense because the financing was directed to the SME segment that has the hardest time accessing long-term credit,” Galante told Télam.
The growth of the guarantees granted by the SGR had fundamentally to do with the change in the regulations defined by Productive Development in April of last year, in order to establish clear and measurable parameters that allow controlling that the increases in the risk fund are translated in greater assistance to MSMEs.
In this regard, the general manager of Acindar Pymes, Pablo Pereyra, told Télam that “after the modification in the rule that regulates the SGR, there was a significant growth in the number of SMEs assisted by the system”, and stressed that ” During 2020, 15,144 were reached and a year later, 21,785 companies”.
Of the total number of MSMEs that received financial assistance, 61% were micro; 23% were small; 10% median section 1; and only 1% medium section 2, which are the largest in the segment.
In addition, most of them, 57%, were MSMEs from the interior of the country, with 28% from the Central region; 8% from the Northeast (NEA) and the same figure from the Northwest (NOA); 7% of Whose; and 6% from Patagonia.
Regarding the activities, the distribution was quite equitable between commerce, industry, services and agriculture.
Of the total assisted MSMEs, 28% were commercial; 23% from services and the same proportion from the agricultural sector; 22%, from industry; and 4%, from construction.
In this regard, the executive of Acindar Pymes specified that the further federalization came hand in hand with the “exponential growth of the Echeq (digital check) that made it possible for more companies to access the capital market immediately -and from anywhere in the country-, again with the support of the SGR in this process unknown to the common to them”.
“Proof of this is the distribution of our client portfolio: only 33% of the issuance was concentrated in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires, 6% in the interior of the province; followed by the Litoral region with 25%; Center, 13%; Cuyo, 9%; Northwest, 8%; and Patagonia, 6%,” Pereyra pointed out.
For his part, the head of Guarantee indicated that “in general, a concentration of the market is observed in Buenos Aires and the central zone of the country.”
“For this reason, in order to diversify and achieve greater penetration in other regions of the country, we are going to open five new branches, with the objective of federalizing access to credit with greater territorial equityGonzalez explained.
