MADRID, 10 (EUROPA PRESS)
Loans granted by ethical finance entities in Spain exceeded 1,720 million euros in 2020, 16.02% in relation to 2019, which means reaching historical maximums in credit to the Spanish real economy, according to the Ethical Finance Barometer and Solidarias 2020 conducted by the Ethical Finance Observatory.
In addition, the delinquency rate of ethical finance entities was 1.52% in 2020, a figure that would be the lowest since the beginning of data collection, according to the observatory through a press release.
Thus, at the end of 2020, almost 190,000 individuals and legal entities were clients of ethical finance banking and para-banking entities, a figure that is, however, 2.46% less than the previous year.
The observatory explains that this trend “can be explained by the fact that ethical finance entities are prioritizing the granting of credit and financial services to entities over customer acquisition campaigns.”
The capital stock raised by ethical finance entities would be “slightly below” 190 million euros.
On the other hand, the sector that has received the most funding in Spain, with 38.43% of the total, is the one linked to the environment, followed by the social sector (23.54%) and the cultural sector (17.43% ). The remaining 20.60% corresponds to individuals and public administrations. At the international level, 83.80% of financing is done through microcredits.
Within the scope of ethical insurance, the data included in the barometer in this section correspond to entities registered in the EthSI European Seal of ethical and solidarity insurance. The report shows that these insurances have managed a premium volume of 1,632 million euros, which represents 2.71% of the total premium volume in Spain.
The observatory highlights that, for the first time, “the structure of the investments made by ethical insurances has been shown, which manage more than 3,200 million euros under criteria of ethical and responsible investments, or in the process of incorporating them.” In this section, the “practically nil” percentage of investments in variable income stands out, with 0.43%.
In relation to the volume of policies, insurance companies and mutuals registered by the EthSI Seal have managed about 4.4 million policies during 2020 and have about 30% women in managerial positions.
In the field of insurance mediation, the report shows that ethical brokerages have a volume of brokered premiums close to 14 million euros and more than 24,000 managed policies. In ethical brokerages, the percentage of women in managerial positions is close to 55%.
THE VOICE OF THE ENTITIES
Representatives of the main ethical finance entities analyzed in the barometer have reflected on the report for 2020 and the current situation of these companies after Covid-19.
From Coop57 it has been highlighted that “during 2020 we have directed our forces in responding to the needs arising from the pandemic crisis, refinancing more than 100 loans worth 4.5 million euros, postponing the return of the installments until they are can reverse the situation. We have worked to continue being a useful tool at the service of social movements and the social and solidarity economy ”.
For its part, Fiare Banca Etica has stated that 2020 “was an especially tough year for many entities as a result of the pandemic. For us, the key was to make ourselves available to them from the first moment to be able to understand and accompany them both in deficiency processes or new financing to adapt the business lines. In general, the impact was positive and we had an increase of more than 50% in financing compared to the previous year ”.
From Oikocredit they have highlighted that “the Covid-19 pandemic, like the climate crisis, has had a much harder impact on low-income countries in the global south, where we carry out the bulk of our activity, and that is why we had to put in place extraordinary resources, both at the level of refinancing the debt and granting grace periods as well as the level of donations to alleviate the serious immediate effects that the outbreak of the pandemic had ”.
As for Triodos Bank, he pointed out that 2020 has been “a year full of challenges”, in which “a lot of efforts have been put into financing the key sectors of the” ecological and fair transition for the regeneration of the economy. ”.
For his part, the representative of the EthSI Seal has highlighted in 2020 that “ethical insurance has facilitated, promoted and applied measures to reduce the economic impact on people and organizations, in the same way that they have been involved in social initiatives civil to fight the pandemic ”.
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