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| Maria Silvia Bastos Marques |
The offering of working capital without the intermediation of agents is part of the new operational policies BNDES announced Thursday in the biggest revamp of the bank’s financing terms in nearly a decade. The last change was made nine years ago.
“At this moment, our emphasis on working capital is to preserve the economic activity and the jobs,” Maria Silvia Bastos Marques, the BNDES president, said when announcing the new policies at the bank’s headquarters, in Rio. She said that the bank has a short-term view in which it seeks to expand access to credit beyond the traditional banking network.
BNDES wants to attract new channels of distribution, as part of its effort to increase access to credit. These channels include digital platforms and fintechs, companies that use technology intensively to offer financial-service products. “We are in advanced talks with a big platform and a fintech for them to distribute our products,” Ms. Marques said.
In reviewing its policies, BNDES also considered the medium and long runs. In this scenario, the concern is with companies’ productivity and competitiveness, something that will define economic growth and job creation in a sustainable way, Ms. Marques said. The revision of policies is result of six months of work of BNDES’s new management, which took office in May 2016, after Michel Temer became president.
The changes will bring about a bank in which the financial instruments (lines and programs) were consolidated, reducing to 50 from 100 different credit conditions. The goal is to ensure a simplification of types of loan and more transparency in the transactions. With the adjustments, the Finem, which includes direct loans of R$20 million or more, fell to 4 from 22 lines.
The reformulations also led to a consolidation of all financing lines into two basic lines: an “incentivized” one, with up to 80% of the credit cost at the subsidized Long-Term Interest Rate (TJLP), and another “standard,” charging market rates. The Finame line, important for financing capital goods, had its term increased to ten from five years.
Another important Finame change is the sign given by the bank that it will reduce the maximum share of TJLP in the loans to vehicles using fossil fuels, such as trucks and buses. “The bank no longer finances coal-fueled thermal power plants and green technologies, such as clean [electric] vehicles, will have a higher share in TJLP,” Ms. Marques said.
She said the bank would start focusing on the attributes of the projects and not on the sectors, making the BNDES operation more horizontal. “An innovation project, for example, will have the same treatment, from the viewpoint of financeable percentage at TJLP, regardless of the sector in which it is. We will treat similar projects in a similar way.”
The greater heft the bank gives to working capital at this moment takes into account the need of maintaining the credit pipes flush when companies, especially small and medium-sized ones, face difficulties to borrow from banks, and there are companies filing for bankruptcy protection almost every day.
BNDES Progeren already existed in an old budget of R$10 billion that was used in the last few years with injection of new funds. From January to November last year, this line disbursed R$2 billion, says Ricardo Ramos, BNDES head of indirect transactions, and the stock of R$10 billion ends this month. In late January, the bank will open more R$8 billion in the Progeren to finance indirect loans.
The minimum value of Progeren loans in the case of a direct transaction will be R$10 million. There was a reduction in the limit for these direct loans, which used to be R$20 million per transaction, something that in BNDES’s logic will ease the access to credit. Micro, small and medium-sized companies with annual gross operating revenues of up to R$90 million will have 100% of the cost at TJLP, which is today at 7.5%. Medium-sized companies with revenues between R$90 million and R$300 million will pay 50% of the loan at TJLP and 50% at market rates. Big companies, with revenue above R$300 million, will pay 100% of the loan at market rates, without subsidy.
Mr. Ramos also announced other measures for micro, small and medium-sized companies. One goal is to shorten the period of approval of the loan from the current 30 days to as few as two days by the end of 2017. There was a change in the classification of size of those companies, to up to R$300 million in annual operating revenue, which Ms. Marques said should allow 1,500 more companies to benefit from the terms offered to this segment.
Micro, small and medium-sized businesses will also be able to have an increase of the guarantees of the Investment Guarantee Fund (FGI). The FGI will increase its coverage to 80% from 70% of the loan. And there will be reduction of the demand of real collateral in the use of the FGI. Ms. Marques said the bank would start accepting, under certain conditions, receivables of companies that don’t have real guarantees to offer, even receivables backed by credit card receipts.
By Francisco Góes, Juliana Schincariol and Rodrigo Polito | Rio de Janeiro
valor.com.br Jan 06 2017
