Starting this week, small business owners can take out loans from the Emergency Credit Access Program (Peac), with guarantees from the Investment Guarantee Fund (FGI). The new round of the program is now open, which this time will include individual microentrepreneurs (MEI).
According to the Ministry of Economy, the new edition of PEAC should guarantee about R$ 21 billion in new loans until December 31, 2023 for micro and small companies and MEI. The lines of credit must have an average interest rate of 1.75% per month, with terms ranging from 12 to 60 months. There will be a grace period of between 6 and 12 months for the payment of the first installment.
The new guarantees – resources that cover possible defaults – are being offered based on resources paid by companies that will not be returned to the Union at this time. These guarantees allow for lower interest rates because banks will be able to resort to the FGI in case of delays in installments, which reduces the risk for financial institutions.
In addition to the expansion of guarantees, the Peac-FGI loans will have lower interest rates because the Decree 11,022of March 31, zeroed the Tax on Financial Transactions (IOF) rate for the program until the end of 2023.
Historic
Created as a program to help small businesses affected by the covid-19 pandemic, PEAC’s main objective is to expand access to credit for micro and small businesses. The program intends to reduce problems that affect credit to this segment, such as high interest rates, bureaucracy and the requirement for guarantees that could not be offered by entrepreneurs.
PEAC was instituted by the Provisional Measure 975of June 1, 2020, converted into Law 14042, of August 19 of the same year. Operated by the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES), Peac-FGI lent BRL 92.1 billion to 114,355 companies until December 31, 2020.
According to the Ministry of Economy, currently 98% to 99% of companies in Brazil are micro or small, responsible for 55% of formal jobs and 29% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Defined as a type of microenterprise, individual microentrepreneurs (MEI) correspond to 67% of Brazilian companies, totaling almost 14.3 million businesses.
