The pandemic has erupted like a “tsunami” and has been a parenthesis in our lives, our concerns and priorities during the last few months. After the initial shock and in parallel with the measures carried out to face the greatest health crisis of the last century, a response was produced by public administrations with the implementation of measures and actions to “soften” the serious effects that the state of alarm was causing in the economy and employment.
Public-private collaboration has been and is being essential for the execution of these measures, which has led to a rapid response in terms of aid to the self-employed, businesses, SMEs and companies, by financing their liquidity needs. , under the guarantees of the ICO, or in the deferrals of mortgage payments to individuals, among others.
In these special circumstances, Ibercaja has further reinforced its reason for being and values such as closeness and commitment, and has been involved and involved to the maximum of its capabilities, with greater intensity in its territories of origin, as is the case of Extremadura, in supporting its clients. Thus, it kept practically all of its offices open, in many locations we are the only financial entity that provides services, and it transferred to the online environment those services and activities that, given the impossibility of carrying them out in person, we considered necessary to accompany our clients in this situation. This is the case of the webinars carried out within the framework of the Más Empresa ecosystem and also from the Bank, through Our Experts respond that expert professionals have prepared on different subjects and contents of interest and that cause greater concern among clients.
On the other hand, collaborations and contacts with regional and local administrations, associations and institutions have remained active, with the conviction that, now more than ever, the sum of efforts is essential to face the challenges imposed by this health crisis. in the fastest way and with the lowest possible cost for the economy and society and, in particular, for companies and employment.
Ibercaja, in this new scenario, has also reinforced its Personal Banking, Private Banking and Business Banking services, since in addition to our offices, our telephone services and online banking have had more professionals and specialists attending to queries and requests for clients, in the first case, and have incorporated new functionalities in the second. Thus, in April, the Bank anticipated the launch of Ibercaja Próxima, a non-face-to-face specialized attention service that allows the same personalized attention to be offered by specialists from the telephone or online banking.
Ibercaja Agro has also responded to a segment of customers whose activity has been essential and has taken on special relevance in recent months. Our historical specialization in this sector, our knowledge of it, as well as proximity to the client and their particular and specific needs have allowed us to support this greater activity required by our clients. In particular, we have continued to manage and process PAC files, taking out agricultural insurance to insure crops and livestock and thus guarantee their income, and ICO lines have been launched for this sector to finance their working capital needs, which has been your top priority during these dates.
Once we are gradually returning to normality, at Ibercaja we revalidate our firm commitment to this territory, its inhabitants and its business fabric, so that our activity focuses on supporting and helping our clients to continue and advance with their activity and investments, in the case of companies, and advise and accompany our individual Personal Banking and Private Banking clients when making their investments. Of course, we will maintain and implement those measures that are necessary to respond to this crisis.
Ibercaja’s organizational purpose “to help people build the story of their life, because it will be our story” takes on special relevance at this time.