Building trust in a guarantee fund in a challenging institutional environment

Abstract

Difficult access to credit is a major obstacle to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) survival, especially in emerging countries, affecting their competitiveness. Lack of guarantees is a main reason why banks do not lend to MSMEs. Guarantee schemes provide partial credit guarantees, but often fail to win trust of banks and enterprises. This study analyzes the process of building trust between the Fundo Garantidor para Investimentos (Investment Guarantee Fund, FGI), created in 2009, and banks in Brazil. This trust was hampered by the failure of public guarantee funds created in the 1990’s. This created a challenging institutional environment to the new fund. The methodology employed was a case study, based on a qualitative approach with document analysis, semi-structured interviews and descriptive statistics. The analysis used models for building and repairing trust in inter-organizational relations and international benchmark for governance and effectiveness of guarantee schemes. The analysis showed that the FGI used other emerging countries and developed countries experience to construct adequate governance and succeeded in establishing trust with the banks. The results show that by 2017, 26 banks contract more than 32,000 operations worth 1.9 billion dollars, with additionalities comparable to the international benchmark.