Second quarter registers a 57% enhance within the granting of credit score to small companies

The granting of credit to small businesses grew by more than 57% in the second quarter of 2022 andin relation to the first three months of the year, reaching R$ 92.8 billion, according to a survey carried out by Sebrae based on data from the Central Bank (Bacen). In total, from January to June, there was an increase of 0.62% when compared to the same period in 2021, totaling BRL 151.9 billion granted in credit operations for individual Microentrepreneurs (MEI), micro and small companies.

“I believe that in recent years there has been, above all, greater knowledge on the part of financial institutions about who small businesses are in the country”, says the president of Sebrae, Carlos Melles. This may be one of the reasons why the quarter achieved the highest credit concession for the segment in the historical series. “The owners of micro and small companies also became known for their behavior in relation to credit. Emergency programs, such as the successful Pronampe, were very important and small businesses, being well guided and assisted in this credit journey, showed that the resources were used productively, thus generating a history of loan payments, also showing themselves to be resilient to the pandemic and capable of modifying their businesses and keeping delinquency levels low”, he adds.

This market recognition is clear in another point addressed by the study, with a 2.5% increase in the number of borrowers in the national financial system in the sum of April, May and June, in comparative terms with the months of January, February and March. In the year – counting from the second quarter of 2021, the evolution was 14%, jumping from 6.4 million to 7.3 million borrowers. “In 2016, there were only about 5 million, which shows the important and necessary evolution of the credit market for these companies”, he explains.

In the same wake, the average value of operations also rose significantly, favored by emergency credit programs during the pandemic. Melles argues that at the beginning of 2020, for example, the average value of credit operations for small businesses was R$10,300. Now, in the second quarter of 2022, it reached almost R$ 18 thousand.

In this context, small businesses and MEIs were the ones that carried out the most credit operations, accounting for an increase of 26.3% and 16%, respectively, between the second quarter of 2020 and the same period this year. In the final amount, the sector has an increase of 14% in the portfolio of operations carried out in this time window analyzed by Sebrae, starting from 26.2 million and reaching 29.3 million.

stable delinquency

Even with the positive numbers seen in the second quarter of the year, data on small business defaults remain practically stable. Even so, the president of Sebrae, Carlos Melles, warns entrepreneurs: “all credit taken today is a debt and becomes an obligation to be paid in the future. So that’s where, in the future, the company needs to be financially healthy and robust.” He mentions the Assisted Credit program, created by Sebrae in 2020. “We support entrepreneurs to practice what we call conscious credit taking, so that the decision to seek a loan is made in a very well-planned, oriented way and in favor of the business development”, he explains.

The data released by Bacen do not yet include the new rounds of credit within the scope of the National Support Program for Micro and Small Businesses (Pronampe) and the Emergency Credit Access Program (FGI PEAC), which started to operate in the third quarter. of 2022.

Source: Agência Sebrae