MicroBank, the only social bank in Spain dedicated exclusively to providing microcredits, reached its tenth anniversary having provided €4 billion in loans and helped to create 181,000 new jobs. These figures were featured in a new ESADE report presented this morning in Madrid by Gonzalo Gortázar, CEO of CaixaBank; Antoni Vila, Chairman of MicroBank; Eugenia Bieto, Director General of ESADE; and María Leander, Secretary General of the European Investment Fund (EIF). MicroBank, a wholly owned subsidiary of CaixaBank, is one of the pillars of the bank’s new Social Responsibility Master Plan, though which “CaixaBank works to maintain a differential positioning in areas that could contribute to improving people’s quality of life, especially those facing the greatest hardship or at the highest risk of exclusion,” Mr. Gortázar explained.

The ESADE study provides a snapshot of the entrepreneurs and business owners who have benefited from MicroBank’s loans. Most beneficiaries are men (62%) without higher education (63%) and the average age is 43 years. The report carefully analyses the characteristics of the businesses supported by MicroBank’s microcredits, the impact of the microcredits on the economic situation of these businesses, and the creation of companies and jobs in general. Mar Cordobés, researcher at ESADE’s Institute for Social Innovation and author of the study, commented: “In the context of the economic crisis of the past decade, the report shows that MicroBank has helped people who have initiative and abilities but lack economic resources and have trouble accessing the traditional credit market. The microcredits have helped these people launch their own businesses.”

Nearly three employees per beneficiary, on average

The report notes that 68% of MicroBank’s microcredits have been granted to companies started by freelancers – to strengthen an existing business in 55% of cases (80% purchased new equipment, 79% improved their competitiveness and 67% increased their sales) and to launch new projects in 45% of cases. In 58% of all initiatives that received a microcredit, the entrepreneur worked with one person; after receiving the loan, the average number of employees per company rose to 2.9. Forty-one percent of these workers now have a permanent employment contract.

In addition to providing quantitative data, the ESADE report notes that the microcredits were a turning point for the entrepreneurs (56% could not have launched their projects otherwise and 93% consider the loan to be essential for their future) and for all beneficiaries in general: 73% now feel more confident of their capacities, 65% feel that their employment situation is more stable, 61% feel more independent and more in control of their lives, and 58% are more integrated in their community.