Spanish entrepreneurship is not at its best as a direct consequence of the coronavirus pandemic. The sector has declined by 13%, with a total of 79,498 new entities formed compared to 91,433 the previous year.
By sectors, the most affected are hospitality and activities related to leisure and entertainment, where the creation of new companies plummeted by 30% and 39.7%, respectively. This is reported by Experian, the only provider in Spain of information services for companies and individuals after the recent purchase of Axesor, a financial, commercial and default information services company specialising in SMEs and the self-employed, after the acquisition, the multinational has a global vision of the credit and default situation in our country.
The pandemic has challenged companies and data has become a key asset. Following the acquisition of Axesor, Experian is positioned as a leader in the information services market in Spain. “Our new combined capabilities allow us to reach more customers, small and medium-sized companies, as well as freelancers, in addition to large companies.”
“Right now we are the one-stop shop for business and personal information, analytics and technology in our country. We put innovation at the service of clients, we are able to offer an unprecedented analytical capacity of the country’s financial situation”, explains Rita Estévez Luaña.
As for the interests of entrepreneurs in these last 12 months of pandemic, agriculture, livestock, forestry and fishing (+4.17%) and activities related to transport and storage (+2.49%), driven by the increase in e-commerce, are the sectors that manage to record year-on-year increases in the number of registered incorporations.
Insight into the insolvency and default and delinquency situation in Spain in the last year
The economic crisis of the coronavirus is one of the direct consequences of the increase in the default and delinquency rate in Spain for companies and individuals. In fact, the default rate is expected to reach 8-9% this year. “The non-payments of individuals and companies have increased in the last year as a result of the Covid-19, but the situation will worsen in the coming months when, on the one hand, the governmental aid of the ERTE associated with the State of Alarm ends and companies have to face numerous expenses with a significant decrease in income compared to other years, and on the other hand, the moratoriums that banks have granted to individuals in mortgages and consumer loans or any other type of financing”, comments Rita Estévez Luaña.
According to data from Axesor, which has the most complete database of information on the financial profile and solvency of companies and the self-employed, between April 2020 and March 2021, the first year of Covid-19, at the company level, bankruptcy proceedings fell by 8.5% compared to the same period of the previous year with a total of 4. 425 insolvency proceedings, largely thanks to the measures on insolvency moratoriums adopted by the Government, which have acted as a retaining wall against the increase in insolvency proceedings that were foreseen as the culmination of a disastrous year for the business fabric in Spain.
Hospitality, with 589 insolvency proceedings, is the sector with the highest increase, 77% more. It is followed by the education sector, where the year-on-year increase in the number of insolvency proceedings is 63%.
As for individuals, it is worth highlighting an increase in the amount of defaults in certain lines of financing such as credit cards, 34%, 28% in consumer financing and 18% in personal loans. In the case of mortgages, defaults remained practically unchanged due to the dampening effect of the moratoriums.
Real-time data and analytical capabilities are essential for companies to gain predictability in the face of uncertainty
Companies of all sizes will benefit from solutions that combine business data, individual data from traditional sources such as credit bureaus and alternatives such as Open Banking, among others. The company is also an expert in data analytics that, through innovative global platforms, are able to improve credit risk management decision-making, verify user identity and prevent online fraud and generate money laundering prevention solutions, as well as make marketing decisions that help businesses make better investments and maximize profits.
For their part, Advanced Analytics and Machine Learning are able to delve deeper into the data that help to better understand current and future customers and predict their behavior. All of this is essential to obtain greater predictability in the face of uncertainty.
“The differentiating value of Experian’s new value proposition lies in speed, scalability and innovation for our clients. We are able to materialize business opportunities faster and find new sources of growth,” says Estévez Luaña.
“The ability to make quick decisions in real time minimises credit risk through a holistic view of customers, increases efficiency and saves cost and time. Detailed customer analysis makes it possible to devise new services or products and scale the business, and access to cutting-edge, agile and frictionless technology improves the transparency of processes and customer confidence, facilitating innovation,” she explains.
Innovation is the common denominator of Experian’s new value proposition. With a transversal technology that integrates automated decision-making platforms: Powercurve, Ascend, Monitoriza® and Investiga®. In addition, Experian’s Marketing Intelligence solutions, such as GeoMarketing Xpert®, are added to Experian’s portfolio to optimize decision making for marketing, expansion and sales managers.