• Since 2020, 481 Colombian SMEs have benefited from two means of providing them with liquidity thus enabling them to preserve 55,090 jobs.
• SURA Asset Management allocated USD 10 million to its Confirming and Financing programs, these carried out through the Company´s operating partners.

Since 2020, SURA Asset Management, an expert player in the retirement savings, investment and asset management sectors, provided, in the context of the pandemic, USD 10 million in support programs for SMEs in Colombia, this in order to provide options and solutions aimed at helping them to preserve jobs and to drive economic recovery, and in so doing maintain the SME business network throughout the country.

These resources were provided through two mechanisms. The first, through the Confirming option, for which USD 9.6 million was allocated and which was executed with the help of the fintech Exponencial Confirming in its capacity as an operating partner. The aim of this program was to provide SMEs with the liquidity and working capital required to continue operating and overcome the challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. The turnover achieved with this mechanism was 9.9 times the resources allocated and, as a result, 444 SMEs were directly favored representing a total of 54,148 jobs.

The second mechanism was implemented through an alliance with the digital credit platform Finaktiva and the SME accelerator Créame. With a contribution of USD 400 thousand for the swift placement of a line of reimbursable soft financing 942 jobs corresponding to 37 beneficiary SMEs were preserved.

In this respect Ignacio Calle, CEO of SURA Asset Management, stated: "We have a pillar, as part of our sustainability strategy to which we are firmly committed, namely building capacities for further development. This is how we are investing in our SMEs, in what was such a difficult situation for them throughout the pandemic, these being the driving force behind the development of the region's economy. We are pleased to see these results, since they translate into jobs that have been sustained, in addition to the impact that these programs have had on economic reactivation".

Adriana Bedoya, one of the entrepreneurs who benefited from the line of credit, said: "During the pandemic, and thanks to this financing initiative, we were able to sustain our payroll and even create some new jobs. Through these alliances, we feel the support of other companies that also care about how we grow both in the market as well as from an economic standpoint.

SURA Asset Management, through its sustainability strategy, is committed to capacity building, both for private individuals and companies, which translates into providing better market conditions for people to access formal jobs and for companies to have the personnel with the necessary knowledge to develop their business and be able to drive employability and the development of formal job markets in Latin America.

About SURA Asset Management
SURA Asset Management is an expert player in the Latin American retirement savings, investment and asset management sectors with a presence in Chile, Mexico Colombia, Peru, El Salvador, Uruguay, the United States and Argentina. Being subsidiary of Grupo SURA, it also has several minority shareholders. At the end of Q1 2022, SURA Asset Management held a total of USD 150,000 million in assets under management belonging to 21.6 million clients throughout the region*.

* Client and AUM data includes AFP Protección in Colombia and AFP Crecer in El Salvador, where SURA AM holds a significant but not a controlling stake.