Finance and BC are betting on guaranteed lines to lower the cost of loans; understand

BRASÍLIA – The economic team is betting on credit with guarantees as a way of boosting loans with lower interest rates than those practiced in the market? an agenda that has the support of the future president of the Central Bank, Gabriel Galípolo. To achieve this, the government targets four pillars: real estate, vehicles, private pensions and the new private payroll, the proposal of which will be sent to the National Congress later this year (read more below).

According to the secretary of economic reforms at the Ministry of Finance, Marcos PintoThe goal is to cut the so-called banking spread in half, which is the difference between the interest the bank pays to raise funds and the rate it charges to lend to customers. Today, according to Pinto, the country's average spread is 20%, more than triple the international average, which is 6%.

“On the one hand, we are greatly reducing the cost for companies through competition outside the banking system (via Capital Markets). However, for individuals, spreads remain high. And that is where the guarantee is extremely relevant”, says the secretary to Estadão. “The revolving and special check (two emergency lines that are not guaranteed) push that number up,” he says.

The economic team's objective is to reduce this cost to 10% over a period of five years. “This would give us a 3% gain in GDP (Gross Domestic Product)“, says Pinto.

He considers that this will only be achieved if the government manages to approve a package of regulatory changes embedded in eight bills. The texts, pending analysis in Congress, include changes to rules in the banking and insurance sectors and in the capital markets.

The theme was also highlighted in the speeches of the future president of the Central Bank, Gabriel Galípoloduring a hearing in the Senate, on Tuesday, 8. On that occasion, he defended the expansion of guaranteed credit as one of the priorities of the institution under his command.

“It seems to me that people, due to simpler access to (credit) revolving credit, which is not exactly the type of credit designed for you to use, but most are always using it, this ends up accelerating or increasing the cost of capital”, said Galípolo, referring to credit card interest, financing most expensive in the country.

“The fact is: we need to advance this agenda (from credit with guarantees)which is one of the priority agendas for the Central Bank’s next cycles”, he stated.

The monetary authority is betting that the drexThe country's future digital currency, still in the development phase, will be a key point in this process. This is because various digital assets can be offered as collateral in credit transactions, reducing costs for the borrower.

Vehicles, real estate and private consignment

Four areas already have legislation approved or in motion and are the Treasury's bets to enhance guaranteed loans in the very short term: vehicles, real estate, private pension and consigned from the private sector.

The first three had their rules adjusted through bills approved last year and sanctioned by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The last one, the private sector, will be the subject of a bill to be sent to Congress by the end of this year, according to Pinto.

Is the objective to spread the modality? today concentrated in larger companies? among workers in small and medium-sized companies and in groups that currently have a limited or non-existent supply of payroll loans, such as domestic employees.

“To be (domestic worker) is an important audience. People who finance themselves with super-expensive retail loans or revolving credit cards and who will be able to take out this new type of financing”, says Pinto.

The idea is to launch a platform, linked to e-Social and FGTS Digital, that allows competition between banks in granting this credit, without the need to enter into an agreement between the financial institution and the employer, as occurs today.

In the case of credit with a guarantee of propertywhich underwent recent reformulation, data from the Brazilian Association of Real Estate Credit and Savings Entities (Abecip) indicate a 59% jump in concessions in August compared to the same month in 2023. Pinto emphasizes, however, that this is still an incipient market and that, therefore, the advance is taking place on relatively small bases.

The innovation, brought about by the new legislation, allows the same property to be used as collateral for more than one loan. Previously, the property was “trapped” to a single financing until the credit was paid off, even if it was an operation worth less than the asset. Now, it is possible to split the value and thus obtain collateral for several loans.

The financing of vehicles ? which has the promise of a more agile recovery of the guarantee, pending regulation by Detrans? also experiences significant growth this year. According to B3, responsible for the National Lien System (SNG), installment sales grew 22.9% in the year to August, reaching the highest level of financed vehicles since 2012.

The Treasury's expectation is that the recovery of these assets, in case of default, will rise from the current 20% to something around 80% or 90%, which will help reduce the cost of credit, because banks will charge less for to loan.

But, despite the jump in concessions, interest rates are still stagnant. In October 2023, the average interest on vehicle acquisition operations was 16.98% per year for legal entities and 26.19% per year for individuals, according to data from the Central Bank. Last August, they were 16.84% and 25.7%, respectively.

Private pension, a R$1 trillion market

Another focus of the Treasury is credit guaranteed by the private pension. Pinto states that the modality should offer lower interest rates due to the nature of the collateral: resources deposited in banks in funds, capitalization bonds and insurance. “It’s super-cheap credit because it’s already money in the bank,” he says.

In this line, the borrower offers as collateral the amount deposited in his VGBL or PGBL or in his capitalization bond. According to Pinto, there is R$1 trillion deposited in banks, which can leverage loans in the same proportion.

The advantage for the borrower is that he will not need to give up the investment to cover an emergency or short-term need, avoiding the taxation that applies to withdrawals from this type of investment, which is normally regressive — the sooner you withdraw, the more tax paid.

Banks already operate in this modality offering interest rates of around 1.10% per month — as a comparison, the interest rate on personal credit is 5.3% per month. In September, the National Monetary Council and the National Private Insurance Council issued standards for the automatic sharing of information between financial institutions.

According to Marcos Pinto, the operations that occur today are mostly carried out within the same conglomerate, that is, involving an insurance company and a bank from the same financial group.

“To lower interest rates even further, we want competition and so there was a whole regulatory process so that insurance companies have the information and the customer can take out a loan from another bank”, says Pinto.

The secretary hopes that, with the automatic exchange of information, this guaranteed credit line will advance more quickly with more attractive rates. The information sharing obligation comes into force in September 2025.