Banco Macro S.A. is a financial institution providing a range of banking and financial services to individuals, businesses, and other entities.
The company provides solutions to key players that generate economic and social value (public sector, large companies and corporations), and promotes the accessibility and financial inclusion of people from vulnerable sectors, professionals, entrepreneurs, and small and medium-sized companies. The company offers traditional bank products and services to...
Banco Macro S.A. is a financial institution providing a range of banking and financial services to individuals, businesses, and other entities.
The company provides solutions to key players that generate economic and social value (public sector, large companies and corporations), and promotes the accessibility and financial inclusion of people from vulnerable sectors, professionals, entrepreneurs, and small and medium-sized companies. The company offers traditional bank products and services to companies, including those operating in regional economies, as well as to individuals. In addition, the company performs certain transactions through its subsidiaries and controlled entities, including mainly Macro Bank Limited, Macro Securities S.A.U., Macro Fiducia S.A.U., Macro Fondos S.G.F.C.I. S.A., Argenpay S.A.U., Fintech SGR, Macro Agro S.A.U., and Banco BMA S.A.U. and its subsidiaries.
Strategy
The company’s strategy is to grow its business, as demand for credit in Argentina increases, by focusing on cross-selling opportunities among its broad customer base. The company seeks to expand access to credit for vulnerable sectors, focusing on financial products for profiles that are traditionally underserved. The company also has been focusing its attention to develop good environmental, social and governance practices.
Products and Services
With a portfolio of products and services for every type of person, company and organization, the company seeks to transmit drive and optimism to think big from a wide range of solutions and services with knowledge, proximity and innovation.
The company offers a relatively narrow range of standard products, which are generally available to both its retail and corporate customers. The company has a holistic approach to its banking business.
Retail Customers
The company serves its retail customers with the objective of satisfying their financial needs, whether savings, transactional or funding. The company provides services to them throughout Argentina, in particular in areas outside the city of Buenos Aires, which have higher concentrations of low- and middle-income individuals who are traditionally underserved by large private banks. The company serves its retail customers through its extensive, nationwide branch network. Approximately 89% of the company’s branches are located outside the city of Buenos Aires.
The company offers its retail customers traditional banking products and services, such as savings and checking accounts, time deposits, credit and debit cards, consumer finance loans (including personal loans), mortgage loans, automobile loans, overdrafts, credit-related services, home and car insurance coverage, tax collection, utility payments, ATMs and money transfers.
Savings and Checking Accounts and Time Deposits
The company generates fees from providing account maintenance, account statements, check processing and other direct banking transactions, direct debits, fund transfers, payment orders and bank debit cards. In addition, the company’s time deposits provide it with a strong and stable funding base.
The company’s commercial and customer bonding actions enable it to achieve growth in the deposit portfolio above market levels, mainly due to an increase in time deposits of retail customers which intensified funding diversification. The company focuses on the life cycle of the account packages, promoting loyalty measures and retention of its products.
The company’s debit card service is critical within the framework of its strategy to increase customer transactions by encouraging the use of accounts. During 2023, the company worked on optimizing the performance of accounts and packages with a focus on customer experience and process digitalization. Every year, the company grows in volume and quality of accounts, expanding its market share. This is the result of the company’s efforts to offer a value proposition that is increasingly adapted to new needs. For example, the company developed the complete digitalization of account opening and management through digital channels at any time of the day and week, while it also extended the validity of debit cards so that customers could continue to make ATM withdrawals and not be forced to go to the branch.
Lending Products and Services
The company offers personal loans, document discounts, residential mortgages, overdrafts, pledged loans and credit card loans to its retail customers.
The company intends to continue to increase its retail lending by focusing its marketing efforts on underserved target markets such as low and middle income individuals. The company also plans to continue to cross-sell its retail lending products to its existing customers, particularly targeting those who may choose to open savings and checking accounts with it because it already provides their payroll and pension services.
During 2021, the company launched a new indirect sales channel, Rapicompra, which allowed it to finance products at the point of sale. It was also added the possibility of approaching credit products in a completely digital way thanks to the sale of loans to non-digital customers, with security measures that allow validating the identity with certainty.
During 2021, the company launched the campaign Jubilate con Macro (Retire with Macro), aimed at customers who are about to retire and retirees and pensioners who receive their pension payments in another bank.
During 2022, a new direct sales channel was launched, which allowed the company to bring financial products to people in a 100% digital way, so that they could access a loan or a card without having to go to a bank branch.
Among the main value propositions, the company offers a wide variety of credit options designed to meet all needs, even in remote locations in Argentina, and the company develops small loans or personal loans based on agreements with municipalities, so that people with a low level of banking penetration can access the benefits of the financial system while limiting their exposure to unregulated loans. The company offers personal loans through 100% digital channels for customers and non-customers and with new processes to finance the purchase of products or services, not only within the bank, but also at different points of sale, through a wide network of stores with agreements, incorporating people with a low level of banking penetration into the system.
In 2023, the company improved its positioning in the Retirees segment, reaching more than 760,000 retirees and pensioners, being the private bank with the largest number of beneficiaries. On the other hand, the company launched the campaign for the recovery of retirees, aimed at people who decided to collect their assets in another bank.
Plan Sueldo Payroll Services
The company handles payroll processing for private sector companies and the public sector, which require employers to maintain an account with it for the direct deposit of employee wages. The company provides payroll services for the governments of the Argentine provinces of Misiones, Salta, Jujuy and Tucumán and to the private sector for a total aggregate of 1.9 million retail clients (including retirees). The company’s Plan Sueldo payroll services provide it with a large and diversified deposit base with significant cross-selling potential.
Corporate Customers
The company provides its corporate customers with traditional banking products and services, such as deposits, lending (including overdraft facilities), check cashing advances and factoring, guaranteed loans and credit lines for financing foreign trade and cash management services. The company also provides them trust, payroll and financial agency services, corporate credit cards and other specialty products.
The corporate business is focused on classification by size and sector. The company has five categories of corporate customers: businesses and professionals, which includes individuals with commercial activity with an annual turnover of more than Ps. 7.2 million and under certain conditions; small companies, which register up to Ps.7,500 million in sales per year; medium-sized and large companies, which register more than Ps.7,500 million and less than Ps.60,000 million in sales per year; agricultural companies, which include individuals and companies who operate in agriculture or in the commerce of agricultural products; and corporate companies which register more than Ps.60,000 million in sales per year.
The company supports productive activities through the promotion of development, new trends and innovation, since its goal is to continue offering the best services for market participants active in agriculture, industry and commerce. Based on values of close customer relationships, effort, hard work, dedication and community, the company offers financing lines according to each customer profile that contribute to their growth, their development and that of their communities.
The company has a network of branches with business officials specialized in each category, offering a wide range of products, including working capital facilities, and credit for investment projects, leasing and foreign trade transactions. The company’s corporate customer base also acts as a source of demand for its excess liquidity through overnight and short-term loans to large corporate customers.
Lending Products and Services
The company offers short-term and medium- to long-term corporate lending products.
Short-Term: Products include credit lines for up to 180 days and consist mainly of overdraft facilities, corporate credit and debit cards and factoring, as well as foreign trade related financing, such as pre-export, post-shipment and import financing. These products also include contingency lines, such as short-term guarantees (performance guarantees and bid bonds) and import letters of credit.
Medium- to Long-Term: Products include credit lines and specific lending facilities of more than 180 days. Credits are usually asset-based, such as leasing, whereby a credit enhancement is achieved by means of the underlying asset.
Medium—to long-term facility risks are mitigated through different mechanisms that range from pledges and mortgages, to structured deals through financial trusts whereby the debtor pledges the underlying asset, mostly future income flows. Regardless of the term and based on the fact that these credit lines are devoted to small to medium-sized companies, the company’s policy is to require personal guarantees from the owners, although the underlying debtor rating remains unchanged.
The company supported the growth of SMEs through the development of businesses and sustainable links throughout the country. The geographic distribution, proximity, personalized attention and the knowledge of the company’s clients and the regional economies allow it to detect their needs and support them in the financing of their projects, as well as to provide transactional solutions for the management of their payments and collections.
Within its Corporate Banking division (Corporate Banking), the company sought to strengthen its relationship with existing and new clients, in order to position itself as one of the main banks in the corporate banking sector. This allowed the company to provide specialized assistance to each of the companies which constitute the different value chains, with products tailored to their needs.
Regarding its Agro Banking division (Agro Banking), the company continued to support regional economies with tailor-made products for sectors, such as tobacco, sugar and yerba mate, by financing all value chains from the primary producer to the industrial producer.
In 2021, with regard to SMEs and Micro-enterprises, the company promoted self-management from digital channels, expanded additional personalized attention on the web page, and implemented a new automatic rating renewal process, which included the extension of limits and the relaxation of requirements for credit evaluations. Special financing lines were also offered for working capital, productive investment, and salary payments.
During 2022, the company deepened its focus on SMEs value chain, providing its suppliers and customers with collection and payment solutions, special financing lines for working capital, and a differential value proposal for the Plan Sueldo. In relation to Megra Banking, the company defineds a new matrix service model between the divisions and the Megra Banking Management in order to provide better customer service. The company approached the client jointly with the Megra officers of each division and the specialists of each product (cash, comex, Plan Sueldo, investments), to offer an integrated proposal to the client. The company also incorporates digital solutions to optimize its clients’ treasury.
From the financial point of view, the company supports its agro customers, especially SMEs, with special lines of financing for investment and working capital needs, according to the production cycles of commodities and regional productions.
To encourage the development of regional economies, the company increased the lines of credit promoted by the national government (Línea de Financiamiento para la Inversión Productiva) and by the provincial governments of Salta, Jujuy, Misiones and Tucumán, with rates subsidized by FONDEP (Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Productivo) and guaranteed by FOGAR (Fondo de Garantías Argentino) to contribute to investments and working capital financing.
Also, lines of loans with funds from the Inter-American Development Bank (Programa Global de Crédito para la Reactivación del Sector Productivo) with support from FONDEP (Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Productivo) were made available, exclusively for the provinces of Catamarca, Salta and Tucumán, to promote productive investment by companies that invest in those jurisdictions and, throughout the country, a line of credit for SMEs to invest in goods for productive investment through leasing. In addition, a line of credit for SMEs to invest in goods for productive investment through leasing.
In addition, agreements were signed with the government of the province of Misiones to support, with a rate subsidy and pledge of a fixed-term certificate issued by the Instituto de Fomento Agropecuario e Industrial de la Provincia de Misiones (IFAI), the wood drying kilns industry (purchase of kilns for wood drying), craft beer entrepreneurs (purchase of machinery and equipment and/or adaptation of infrastructure and/or purchase of raw material) and yerba mate producers (working capital); and with the Province of Salta to grant loans for investments by SMEs with a rate subsidy from the Province.
The company implemented an agreement between it, the Federal Investment Council (CFI) and Garantizar Sociedad de Garantía Recíproca to implement operations of the CFI with a digital guarantee of the SGR and to expedite the implementation of loan operations for the credit lines for the Productive Reactivation and for Regional Exportable Production.
During 2023, the company focused on attracting new customers, achieving annual growth rates of 11 % in Business and Professionals, 10 % in SMEs, and 6 % in Megra and Agro. The company deepened the value chain of the Mining and Oil & Gas sectors, and the universe of franchises, leveraging the development of a comprehensive value proposition that includes, among other products, financing and new digital payment and collection solutions.
During 2023, the company accompanied the SME segment with a better and more flexible credit offer, new self-management tools that improve the experience, digital collection and payment solutions that facilitate the daily management of customers, and the proximity and advice of specialized officers throughout the country.
The company signed an agreement with BICE Fideicomisos to implement guarantees for first losses in order to streamline the credit operations of MSMEs and back up their transactions.
Finally, this year the company once again generated actions in conjunction with the Federal Investment Council (CFI), Acindar Pyme SGR and Cuyo Aval SGR in order to carry out operations with digital guarantees with the purpose of accelerating the process of execution of loans destined to the credit lines for the Productive Reactivation and for Regional Exportable Production.
The company accompanied the countryside by expanding ratings, with a constant, profitable and competitive offer of financing rates for working capital and investment, standing out as an Argentine bank that closely accompanied the countryside, after a drought with a great impact on production levels and within the framework of a complex macroeconomic context. In this line, the company boosted commercial interaction with more than 150 financing agreements (between manufacturers and suppliers of inputs), focused on the construction of digital solutions to be digital suppliers (Agro platform) and internal processes (New Agro Scoring) and on the incorporation of new non-banking commercial products within the bank’s commercial attention model, with the purchase of the Macroagro Grain brokerage firm, and the strategic alliance with the Campo simple input sales store within the Macroagro integral offer.
Corporate Banking focused on capturing the flow of customers’ cash balances, offering solutions in investment and financing products for the different value chains. It also focused on expanding digital solutions within the collection and payment ecosystem. In this way, it was able to increase the placement of non-traditional products, strengthening the company as a technological ally, leveraged on its proximity to customers and coordination with other related companies.
Government Banking
The responsibility of Government Banking Management is to manage the links and actions with the National, Provincial and Municipal Public Sector at both central and decentralized levels, as well as with the autonomous entities to which the company provides financial services for their administration and the development of their communities.
The company also promoted agreements with the government of the province of Misiones to support the wood drying kilns industry for the purchase of wood drying kilns; craft beer entrepreneurs for the acquisition of machinery and equipment and/or the adaptation of infrastructure and/or the purchase of raw materials; and yerba mate producers with working capital.
The company also participated in the bidding process carried out by the San Juan Agency with the awarding of funds to be placed to MSMEs with investment projects in the province, including working capital and technical assistance.
In 2023 from Government Banking, the company continued with the purpose of digitizing governments and their communities, bringing solutions that simplify their daily lives, with a focus on providing technological solutions in the payment ecosystem, beyond traditional banking and financial services. It supported regional economies by implementing and renewing incentive programs and encouraged mass consumption, for example, through the extension to special holidays, with participation in discounts and financing during special holidays in collaboration with commerce chambers, the province, and the company.
Finance Banking
The company serves the Institutionalized Financial Sector, which is regulated by the Central Bank, which includes Public, Private, National and Foreign Banks, who maintain relationship with the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic. It also includes institutional investors (Workers’ Compensation Insurers (ART), Insurance Companies, etc.). The company provides financial and investment banking services -funds, bonds, corporate bonds-within the capital market.
During 2022, the company worked diligently to assist clients with their first trust issuance in the market, expanding the client base. The company also supported large demanders of capital market financing, such as retail companies and Megra clients related to the agricultural sector.
Transaction Services
The company offers transaction services to its corporate customers, such as cash management, collection services, payments to suppliers, payroll services, foreign exchange transactions, foreign trade services, corporate credit cards, and information services, such as its Datanet and Interpymes services, described further below. There are usually no credit risks involved in these transactions, except for intra-day gapping (payments made against incoming collections), as well as settlement and pre-settlement related to foreign exchange transactions which, in general, are approved following the debtor credit rating process.
Payments to Suppliers: The company’s payments for supplier services enable its customers to meet their payment obligations to their suppliers on a timely basis through a simple and efficient system. This service also provides payment liquidations, tax payment receipts, invoices and any other documents required by the payer.
Collection Services: The company’s collection services include cash or check deposits branches, including Banco BMA, automatic and direct debits from checking or savings accounts and the transportation of funds collected from corporate customers to its branches for deposit. The company’s extensive branch network enables it to offer fast and efficient collection services throughout Argentina, which is of critical importance to both regional and nationwide companies.
Datanet and Interpymes: The company provides its corporate clients with access to the Datanet service (Datanet), which is an electronic banking network linking member banks in Argentina. This service permits the company’s clients to obtain reliable online information on a real-time basis from their bank accounts in Datanet as well as, to perform certain transactions. Interpymes is an electronic banking system designed to meet the needs of small businesses.
Tax Collection and Financial Agency Services: The company also has exclusive, long-term arrangements to provide tax collection and financial agency services to four provinces: Salta, Misiones, Jujuy and Tucumán. These contracts expire in 2026, 2029, 2024 and 2031, respectively.
Payroll Services: The company provides payroll services to four provinces and to the private sector.
Distribution Network
As of December 31, 2023, the company had the largest private sector branch network in the country, with branches, including Banco BMA, spread throughout Argentina. In particular, in line with the company’s strategy of expanding nationally, it has extensive coverage in the Argentine provinces with 89% of its branches located outside the city of Buenos Aires. Furthermore, as of December 31, 2023, the company had, including Banco BMA, ATMs, self-service terminals (SSTs) and several service points used for social security benefit payments and servicing of checking and savings accounts and internet home banking service (Home Banking).
Technology, Automated Channels and Credit Cards Processing Systems
The company’s technological development is continuous and the number of alternative methods to perform banking transactions is increasing. Automated channels allow the company’s clients to perform banking transactions with enhanced speed, comfort and safety, offering a wide variety of available transactions.
In 2021, the company continued with the implementation of the new Customer Service Model branches to enable the self-management of after- sales transactions. The new customer service model contemplates a digital experience assisted by an educator who acts when required.
In 2022, the company continued to advance in the implementation of digital solutions, incorporating operations and services to provide a better experience to customers in all segments, both for their self-management and remote virtual operations, as well as to simplify their face-to-face operations. Within this framework, the role of communications and customer training is key to achieve the changes towards digitalization.
During 2022, the company improved the virtual assistant platform so that both customers and non-customers could, in addition of resolving queries, perform operations. In this way, they could: register accounts, find out where their cards are in distribution, unblock passwords, renew Fe de vida, etc.
With a focus on proximity, digitalization and the transformation towards a new form of banking in Argentina, during 2023 the digital strategy was consolidated and deepened, leveraging on digital assets that the company had already been developing and implementing.
The company completed the implementation of its own biometrics system, which allows it to store the biometric features of customers (facial features and fingerprints) in branches. In 80% of the sales, the customer is enrolled, and at the moment the company has reached levels above 30% of enrolled customers (over the total number of digital customers). This has allowed the company to perform more than 60% of transactions in self-management channels through this biometric identification, which reduces all kinds of friction, since the customer does not have to remember passwords and users, resolving them in a more efficient and secure way.
Likewise, the company continued to expand the technological devices located in the branches to facilitate customer self-management and digital education, both for after-sales and sales transactions, as well as the digitalization of processes with the creation of the digital file and the implementation of the biometric holographic signature, which eliminates the use of paper and simplifies procedures. In addition, the digital file can be reused for other processes and future interactions with the customer, with branches already implemented.
During 2023, the company continued to advance in the implementation of digital solutions, incorporating operations and services to provide a better experience to customers in all segments. These advances include platform upgrades and functionalities to improve ease of use, provide more services and ensure security.
Within this framework, the role of communications and customer training was key to achieving the changes towards digitalization. To this end, actions focused on improving the self-management channels for Individual, Corporate and Organizational clients and providing online training to service users.
Seeking a new way of banking in Argentina, the company implemented BancoChat, a new way of operating and interacting with customers, being pioneers in the industry, so that customers can operate in an easy, agile and safe way, leveraging security through the use of their biometric features. In this way, the company brings solutions to the WhatsApp platform that customers use in their daily lives. BancoChat is a solution that operates on WhatsApp, a conversational platform that allows the company to reach many more people with its products and services. WhatsApp has 18 million users in Argentina, used by all social strata and age groups, thus allowing the company to promote financial inclusion and eliminate adoption barriers as it is an application that is present in 93% of Smartphones.
The company has ATMs that operate independently of the branch and offers money extraction service and balances consultation, among other operations. In 2023, the company continued with the project to renew and expand the ATM fleet, which included the installation of new ATMs. As of December 31, 2023, the company had ATMs, including Banco BMA.
The company developed a project aimed at replacing the entire park of Self-Service Terminals, which comprises the renewal of all equipment and the development of a renewed Proprietary Network with state-of-the-art Software and Hardware, including -among other things- immediate accreditation of deposits. As a corollary of this project, at the end of the year, 120 new TAS were put into service in different regions of the country (most of them available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year), resulting in a friendly and intuitive channel for customers, which allows operating with an important volume of banknotes.
The company has SSTs terminals, including Banco BMA, distributed in its branch network across Argentina, offering an ample variety of operations, including the possibility of making deposits twenty-four hours a day, every day, all year long.
The company’s Macro Banca Móvil channel has developed significantly in the last years. In line with the characteristics of the users and the technological trends supporting the development of the service, the Macro Banca Móvil application is available in the main virtual stores of the principal operating systems. Over the last few years, the company continues to work on new functionalities that generate value for clients: U.S. dollar purchase and sale transactions, transfers to new accounts, point checking and redemptions under its Macro Premia rewards program, and UVA loans detailed enquiries.
Deposits
The company’s deposits include non-interest bearing demand deposits; non-interest bearing other deposits; savings accounts; and time deposits.
History
Banco Macro S.A. was incorporated in 1966.
