BNDES Announces Expanded Health-and-Beds Focused Measures

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazil’s National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES) launched on Sunday, March 29th, a new package to tackle the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. The measures announced earlier are aimed at aiding the purchase of materials for ICUs and expanding the number of beds.

In this respect, the development bank announced a new R$2 billion (US$400 million) line to increase the supply of emergency beds, as well as medical and hospital materials and equipment. Companies from other sectors that seek to convert their production into health equipment and supplies will be contemplated, it said. BNDES said the program will seek to support the increase in the number of ICU beds, particularly in regions with low levels of infrastructure.

BNDES estimates the number of ICU beds will be increased by 3,000, equivalent to more than ten percent of the currently available SUS (Public Health Service) beds in the country, the financial institution said. The number of ventilators is expected to increase by 15,000, corresponding to 50 percent of the total SUS demand expected over the next three months, it said.

BNDES estimates the number of monitors will increase by 5,000 and the number of surgical masks will increase by 88 million.

With the new measures, BNDES said the announced programs will lead to a positive impact on the economy of R$97 billion. Last week, R$55 billion were approved, of which R$20 billion was for transfer of resources from the PIS/PASEP (Social Integration Program/Program for the Development of Public Servants’ Assets) fund to the FGTS (Severance Premium Reserve Fund), R$19 billion for suspension of payments for loan operations, R$11 billion for suspension of payments for indirect loan operations and R$5 billion for strengthening the BNDES Small Business Credit line.

Other lines

Just last week, the BNDES launched an emergency credit line to fund small and medium-sized companies, totaling R$40 billion, which can be accessed by companies with annual revenues between R$360,000 and R$10 million, to be used exclusively to meet employee payroll obligations.

The bank explained that the resources will be deposited into workers’ accounts and are limited to two minimum wages  (R$2,090 or US$ 410) per month; the remainder, if any, will be for the company’s account. The repayment will be made by the company that contracts the credit line with the banks.

For this program directed at SMEs, there will be an injection of R$34 billion from the National Treasury and R$6 billion from banks. Thus, 85 percent of the credit risk will be taken by the government and the other 15 percent by the banks.

BNDES pointed out that the National Monetary Council (CMN) granted an exclusive authorization to BNDES to transfer resources to Fintechs authorized as Direct Credit Societies (SCDs). As a result, as of May, Fintechs registered in the BNDES’ online credit App platform, the MPME Channel, will be able to operate with funds from the development bank.

Source: Exame