Member Article

The Ministry of Finance and Public Credit issued Legislative Decree 492 of 2020, which establishes measures for the strengthening of the National Guarantee Fund (FNG) and makes provisions for resources, within the framework of Decree 417 of 2020 which declared the Economic, Social and Ecological Emergency. Since the date the Decree becomes effective, the property of companies subject to the vigilance of the Superintendence of Finance of Colombia or that develop activities related to the financial service, that are part of the executive branch of the national order, and that are registered in the name of Ministries, Administrative Departments and other entities of the national order, shall be registered and linked to the name of the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit. After registration in the aforementioned Registry, the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit may contribute the share ownership of all financial entities that are part of the Executive Branch of the National order as capital of the company Grupo Bicentenario S.A.S. at its intrinsic value.

With the consolidation of the assets of the public state-owned companies at the head of Grupo Bicentenario S.A.S., it will be possible to coordinate and centralize the strategies for the use of the assets of the national public sector financial institutions, with the purpose of using these resources to face the adverse effects generated within the framework of the economic, social and ecological emergency.

Both the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit and Grupo Bicentenario S.A.S. must carry out the necessary registrations and other procedures within six months of the entry into force of the Decree.

The Ministry of Finance and Public Credit and the state entities that are part of the executive branch of the national order may make capital contributions to the FNG, through any mechanism for strengthening its assets. Resources may come from: 1) Surplus capital and dividends from state entities that are part of the executive branch of the national order, in the amounts determined by the national government, including Findeter, the National Savings Fund and Grupo Bicentenario S.A.S, among others. 2) The resources of the special account referred to in Article 144 of Law 1753 of 2015 and its amendments, up to the amount of $ 2.6 billion pesos. 3) Any others determined by the National Government for such purpose, to any title.

In addition, the National Government will reduce the capital of the following entities by the maximum amounts: a) Grupo Bicentenario S.A.S. up to $300 billion; b) Financiera de Desarrollo Territorial S.A. up to the amount of $100 billion; c) National Savings Fund up to the amount of $100 billion; d) Fund for the Financing of the Agricultural Sector up to the amount of $50 billion; e) Urrá S.A E.S.P. up to the amount of $50 billion and f) Central de Inversiones S.A. up to the amount of $50 billion.

The resources resulting from the above operations will only be used to strengthen the assets of the FNG. FNG will only back guarantees focused on sectors, products or segments that have the favorable vote of the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit, in order to provide access to credit to individuals and legal entities that have suffered adverse effects on their economic activity due to the events that caused the Economic, Social and Ecological emergency within the framework of Decree 417 of 2020.

It should also be noted that the commissions for the guarantee service granted by the FNG to confront the adverse consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, are excluded from sales tax (VAT) and the withholding at source as income tax for the payment or credit to the commissions for the service of the guarantees granted by the FNG will be 4%.

SEE DECREE HERE