Initiatives aimed at micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises (MSME) received special attention from BNDES due to their economic and social importance. The Emergency Program for Employment Support (R$ 4.6 billion approved), the BNDES Small Business Credit Line (R$ 6 billion approved), the Emergency Program for Access to Credit (R$ 3.4 billion carried out through collateral) and the suspension of payments for automatic indirect operations (R$ 3.1 billion approved) allowed the maintenance of an estimated four million jobs.

 

Gentile Fachinelli is the owner of TSPro, a machinery manufacturing company that provides solutions for industrial fluid transfer in Guarulhos (SP). The pandemic caused the company’s sales to be reduced by 60%. BNDES’s financing was crucial for him to continue the activities during the crisis. “This money allowed us to pay all taxes and keep all our employees. The financing is helping us to continue operating. We are not giving up.”

 

BNDES’s initiatives to preserve people’s health focused primarily on the Emergency Program for the Health Sector (R$ 305 million approved), which has, so far, resulted in the acquisition of 2,870 beds, 4.5 million tests, 1,500 monitors and 220 respirators for the treatment of patients with Covid-19. The campaign Matchfunding Saving Lives (R$ 35 million) has delivered about 14 million pieces of personal protective equipment (gloves, aprons, surgical caps, masks and hand sanitizer) to 164 hospitals of 20 states.

 

In support of large companies, BNDES established lines for the suspension of payments for direct operations – private sector (R$ 7.8 billion approved) and suspension of payments for non-automatic indirect operations (R$ 1.2 billion approved) for all sectors of the economy.

 

Finally, the emergency actions with the public sector focused on maintaining the financial capacity of states and municipalities to cope with the pandemic. The standstill line for the public sector temporarily postponed R$ 3.3 billion in debts incurred with BNDES. Another initiative was the emergency transfer of funds to all 13 states that have active contracts with the Bank.  

 

PIS-Pasep - In addition to these R$ 30 billion in emergency actions, BNDES also transferred R$ 20 billion from the PIS-Pasep Fund, managed by the Bank, to the FGTS. This measure aims to support workers with the possibility of new withdrawals from the fund, in addition to freeing up resources for other initiatives currently combating the pandemic’s effects. The sum of BNDES’s support, considering shares and transfer, reached R$ 50 billion.

 

About BNDES - Founded in 1952 and currently linked to the Ministry of Economy, BNDES is the main instrument of the Federal Government to promote long-term investments in the Brazilian economy. Its actions focus on socioenvironmental and economic impacts in Brazil. BNDES offers special conditions for micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises, as well as social investment lines, directed at education and health, family agriculture, sanitation and urban transport. In crisis situations, BNDES acts in an anticyclical manner and assists in the formulation of solutions for economic growth to resume.