Cerasa points out that a third of the companies that joined the program registered default

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The program aims to simplify the contracting of private payroll loans for those who are CLTs, APP workers, domestic and rural workers, and micro-individual entrepreneurs (MEI). But employer companies reported more defaults due to platform-related failures than workers’ inability to pay.

According to research, 65% of cases arise due to systemic or operational errors, such as delays in information between HR and the financial institution (30%), integration failures with eSocial/Dataprev (22%), and payroll deduction issues (13%). Another 33% are related to payment problems on the part of the employee.

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Previously, private payroll loans were based on a direct agreement between the company and the bank. It was the employer who agreed with the financial institution on certain rules such as the deadline for payment of salaries, the method of transfer and settlement, explains Dilber Lage, CEO of Salaryfits, a Serasa company.

Now, the flow has reversed. Banks join the program and the worker, using a digital business card, requests a credit offer and chooses a place of employment. The company is notified of a salary deduction limited to 35% of the salary.

However, for the process to be successful, the company must have already provided Emprega Brasil with the necessary information so that it can be registered with eSocial. Financial institutions, on the other hand, only access this data via Dataprev.

— The HR department now has a huge range of obligations, with many operational procedures. Managers need in-depth knowledge of payroll, knowing the deadline, seeking settlement, and paying payroll taxes. He explains that it changes the HR routine a lot.

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Another factor that has further complicated the method is the fact that any bank can now make payroll loans to any company.

— Banks that have not previously worked with certain companies begin offering credit. Our research shows that 67% of new loans are from banks that had no relationship with that company at all. This generates more transaction volume, more players And in a scenario where companies are still learning new procedures.

The numbers confirm this adaptation scenario. According to the Serasa study, of the 297 companies already familiar with the platform, only 25.8% said they knew the software well. Another 28.2% have only mastered the basics of implementing the resource.

Medium-sized companies face the greatest difficulties, followed by small companies (28.6% of cases) and large companies (24.3%). Default rates are highest among companies in the Northeast (42.1%) and Southeast (33.3%). Through sectoral comparison, industry (38.6%) and retail trade (48%) account for the majority of cases.

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Reported operational difficulties also help explain the behavior of interest rates at this stage of the programme. In March, the average interest rate on private payroll loans was 44% annually, according to central bank data. But since the program arrived, interest rates have risen. In October, the average reached 59% annually.

For Lage, the increase in interest rates in the credit method is clearly related to the period of adaptation to the new model. In addition to the risks that were already present in the previous model – such as the chance of dismissal, furlough and potential financial problems for the company – operational failures are now added, which increases defaults, and the entry of a greater number of new borrowers, with risk profiles that are still poorly measured by the market due to lack of information.

As the program expanded, workers who previously did not have access to payroll loans began using this resource. Many of them are with low scores. A previous Serasa survey showed that 44% of new borrowers had a score of 400 or lower.

Another point is the cost of information asymmetry. Banks began extending credit to employees of companies with which they had no relationship at all, and because of their lack of knowledge, they tended to charge higher interest rates. As Lage puts it, it is a combination of a high risk profile, operational failures, and the cost of data inconsistency.

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Despite this, the Executive believes that within 12 to 18 months, the average interest rate on private payroll loans will undergo a correction. This is because the market is expected to learn how to operate the model, the company’s HR staff will adapt to the new procedures and more information will be circulated in the system.

– Our assessment is that the market will split. In other words, different profiles of companies and workers should have different rates depending on the risk.