Ibercaja has attracted 4,000 new companies in the first year after the creation of a specialized area in this customer segment, as announced this Wednesday by the entity’s Director of Business Banking, Teresa Fernández, at a press conference with the head of Business Banking Strategy, Toño Ruiz.
This growth has occurred especially in “Madrid and the Mediterranean arc”, which would collect 80 percent of this increase, while Aragon “could represent 10 percent”, as indicated by the head of Business Business Development, Cristina Mateo, also present at the press conference.
In this regard, Teresa Fernández has highlighted that “there has been growth in all territories.” He has stated that this new area is part of “Ibercaja’s 2023 Challenge Strategic Plan aimed at a new business model based on digitization, sustainability and inclusion.”
The director of Business Banking at Ibercaja has referred to the liabilities that companies have accumulated during the last year since “although economic growth has recovered, investment has not,” due to the “uncertainty” still present.
In this context of contained investment, Fernández pointed out, “we have been noticing that there is a lot of stagnant liquidity in companies, so at Ibercaja we have defined a line of investment fund products to be able to direct their cash surpluses and that they can obtain profitability to their surpluses “.
On the other hand, Fernández has referred to the credicitia investment in the business segment in Ibercaja, which “has increased by 338 million euros”, which has meant “a 4.6 percent growth in the last twelve months” , exceeding the balance of 7,700 million euros.
circulatory
More than 50 percent of the total growth of credit investment has been to finance working capital needs, which implies “a recovery in the sales of companies,” said Cristina Mateo.
This recovery has been “less rapid and stable than expected”, he detailed, alluding to the problems of supplies, raw materials and the delay in the arrival of European funds, despite which Ibercaja has managed to “win eight basis points in market share in the corporate segment “.
Mateo has detailed that the entity currently has eight business centers, fifteen company spaces in the main offices of its network, 250 specialist professionals and 130 business managers.
The head of Business Business Development has continued to state that this area is made up of a team of 212 managers to serve those companies with a turnover of more than two million euros, and recalled that “the latest report from the independent entity INMARK it has been considered the management figure with the best level of recommendation “in this area.
Mateo has specified that the workforce in this area has increased with 130 commercial business managers from those companies that have a turnover of less than two million euros. The team is completed by forty managers who offer technical support.
This reinforcement of the team, according to Cristina Mateo, has contributed to the formalization of nearly 18,000 operations for 1,767 million euros in credits, loans and leases.
Financing
As another positive figure, he mentioned that in the financing of 2021 ICO loans have accounted for 15 percent, compared to 53 percent that was registered in 2020. An impression that has been reinforced by “the 5,330 million euros traded in operations of working capital, 13 percent more than the same period in 2020 “
He also stressed that this increase has also been accompanied by a drop in the delinquency rate, which barely reaches one percent, reaching historic levels.
For his part, the head of Business Banking Strategy, Toño Ruiz, has established “personalized attention and proximity” as the basis for the growth of this customer segment, which is “our differential value”.
Ruiz has referred to the growth of services in online banking, especially with the ‘easypay’ tool, with which client companies “can finance any payment they have made, simply with a click from their statement of movements, choose the financing term, and is available twenty-four hours a day. “
Toño Ruiz also congratulated himself on the progress made in the year with the launch of new services, highlighting sustainable products, and highlighted the “exceptional reception” that the new investment funds have had by companies, obtaining net contributions by 285 million euros “, of which” 82 have been contributed from Aragon “.
Pension plans
In addition, reference has been made to “pension plans”, in which the entity has “more than thirty years of experience and occupies the third position in the sectorial ranking”, and has mentioned it as one of the strengths of the SMEs “to retain their workers.”
Finally, he has advocated for the “unique opportunity that the arrival of European Next Generation funds will offer companies,” which will serve for “the necessary transformation of the Spanish productive fabric.”
In this sense, he stated that Ibercaja “already has the support lines prepared to also accompany our clients in the process of applying for these grants”, for which the collaboration of the experts Mazars and Silo has been sought, in order to “Offer specialized advice to our clients with specific financial solutions.” Among them, a virtual assistant has stood out “to know all the calls that appear”.
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