Two of the main banks join forces in an agricultural fintech and expect a strong jump in financing for producers

With the aim of accelerating the technological development of financial tools in the agricultural sector, Santander announced that it has acquired 50% of Nera, the digital payment and financing platform launched by Grupo Galicia in 2023.

The agreement between the two banking entities covers Nera's operations in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay and the objective is to promote the platform regionally.

“We were developing our own platform, but for a few months we have been working together with Galicia to join Nera because the ambition is great. We want this platform to become the Agrotech platform of Argentina and to be able to simplify the lives of our clients. For that we need the majority of producers, suppliers, and most financial service providers to join as well,” Alejandro Butti , Country Head and CEO of Santander Argentina, explained to Clarín Rural .

“When you create an ecosystem in any industry, you want it to be the most widely used. And there are two ways to do that. One is to compete with different platforms, so that each bank has its own for agriculture, and another is to have a single platform and compete within the platform. We are choosing the latter,” Fabián Kon, CEO of Grupo Galicia, told Clarín Rural.

The Galicia director agreed that having a single platform is “more efficient for the producer, for the suppliers of agricultural inputs and also for the banks.”

The platform offers agreements with multiple financial entities and more than 1,800 field suppliers with loan options in pesos, dollars and grains. Since its launch in 2023, more than 6,500 producers have received financing through the platform , generating more than 28,000 transactions totaling US$1.2 billion.

"The goals are extremely ambitious. We estimate that we will have around 1.1 billion dollars in financing by 2025," said Marcos Herbin , CEO of Nera.

Currently, the platform includes offers from Galicia, Banco Comafi, Banco del Sol and, starting with Expaogro 2025 - which starts from March 11 to 14 - Santander will be added.

"This democratises the services . This platform does not work exclusively with these two banks (Santander and Galicia), which are the shareholders, but this platform is open so that all banks that want to participate can do so. There is no agreement between shareholders or between participating banks to offer the same thing to customers ," Butti clarified.

Finally, regarding the importance of the agricultural sector for Santander and Galicia, the directors reported that it represents between 20% and 30% of total financing in both entities .

“The agricultural sector is the most dynamic sector in Argentina. It accounts for almost 20% of GDP and is the most important sector from the point of view of exports (NDR.. 6 out of 10 dollars were contributed by the countryside in 2024). In addition, it has an opportunity for growth when compared to Brazil in both livestock and agricultural production. There is also a context of stability that allows financing to exist. And at the same time, banks also have to be efficient, we have to grow in credits and we cannot expect a producer to become a branch to complete a role,” said the CEO of Grupo Galicia.

“The macroeconomic situation continues to adjust, inflation is falling sharply, the exchange rate gap is practically disappearing and reserves are slowly starting to rise. Without a doubt, producers, who are generally very conservative, will start to take a little more risk and will be willing to go into debt a little more than they have been in the past . This sector has a great advantage, which is that it does not have a currency mismatch,” analyzed the CEO of Santander.