Santander, under the leadership of its group chief executive Jose Antonio Álvarez, was the first international bank to really focus on the small and medium-sized enterprise segment across the markets in which it operates.
In Brazil its impressive growth in recent years was, in large part, due to the success of Getnet, its collection and services platform. The bank used Getnet payments processing machines as a route to gain SME business accounts and the personal accounts of entrepreneurs and their employees. Santander launched Getnet in Chile and Argentina in 2020 (having already launched in Mexico) and it is now also having a similarly positive impact on Santander’s SME and wider business in these markets.
The bank empowers its local teams to be autonomous when addressing the SME segment.
For example, in Argentina it developed and implemented a new sales channel in 2020 that enabled 100% remote management. In Brazil it launched three products – Prospera, Agreonegocio and Duo Santander – that were all designed to serve SMEs. In Chile, Santander provided 26% of its SME loan portfolio with a payment holiday and processed more than $2.8 billion of governmental assistance payments to the sector.
Meanwhile, in Mexico Santander’s digitization push reached five million clients and the bank is now lending to the middle market and SMEs, which now represent 27.6% and 9.3% of the bank’s total portfolio respectively. And in Uruguay the bank grew its SME loans by 23% year on year, distributed 35% of the government’s financial support to the sector and implemented a 0% credit line to medical institutions and certain healthcare companies, with a total of $20 million in interest-free loans extended.
