BICE disbursed $50,000 in the first semester to promote national production

The credits for productive investments increased more than 40% (adjusted for inflation) compared to the same period in 2022 and 80% of the financed projects had a rate bonus from the CreAr Argentine Credit Program of the Ministry of Economy.

The number of SMEs assisted had a growth of 50% during the first six months of the year compared also to the first half of 2022. And the federalization of financing deepened, with almost 60% of clients located outside the metropolitan area.

“These results are not accidental, nor isolated. They are the evidence of the work and the course that the Government traced through the economic team of Sergio Massa, where the industry grows, industrial employment grows and in a sustained manner,” he said. José Ignacio de Mendiguren, Secretary of Industry and Productive Development. “BICE is one of the main executing arms of the State policy that we inaugurated with the Argentine Credit Program (CreAr) and a key instrument to channel financing towards the productive sectors that promote development”, he added.

“The numbers for the semester ratify the decision we made with this effort that Mendiguren started to reorient the BICE to its role as a development bank. We not only amplified the disbursements, but we did it through the increase in credits for long-term investment projects, which are the ones that generate an impact on the change in the national productive matrix. Companies from all economic sectors and from all over the country that add value, multiply their industrial capacity and generate new jobs,” said the President of BICE, Mariano de Miguel. p. 1.

Disbursements in this period amounted to almost $50,000 million (adjusted for inflation), which marks an increase of 15% compared to the same period in 2022. Of the total financing, 54% was destined for productive investment projects, 20% was for foreign trade operations (exports) and the remaining amount distributed between lines of working capital, second-tier operations and capital markets.

Support for the purchase of capital goods grew

According to the report of BICEloans for investment projects -which have an average term of 5 years- increased 41% compared to the first semester of 2022. Support for the purchase of capital goods by companies through the leasing modality also grew, which marked an increase of 26% in the same comparison.

Another data that emerges from the analysis reveals that 80% of the investments financed by the bank generate new and quality jobs. “The growth in loans for investment projects is mainly explained by the excellent placement of the line Create for SMEs. We were one of the first banks to implement these loans and today we are expanding the quota in $25,000 million thanks to the coordinated work with the Secretariat of Industry and Productive Development and the Ministry of Economy”De Miguel added.

Regarding the most financed economic activities in the semester, there are the agribusiness, food and beverage processing, construction and metallurgy. With regard to the location of the companies, a more fragmented distribution of disbursements and clients is observed, with greater participation from the interior regions of the country.

Besides, 94% of the companies reached belong to the SME segment.

Solvency growth

The decision to redirect BICE to production and SMEs was accompanied by a strategy to clean up the institution, with solid and sustainable finances. In this sense, the current management managed to reestablish financial balance and obtain positive results. Today the bank has a bad debt ratio of 1.75% (May) versus the 8% registered at the end of 2019.

In addition, the loan approval procedure was streamlined to improve assistance to companies. The credit process went from 72 days to 34 days on average.

Tools and processes focused on customer service were also deepened. BICE achieved this year the renewal by IRAM of the certification of its ISO 9001 Quality Management System based on international standards.