The financial scenario for small and medium-sized businesses is going through a moment of extreme fragility that – as in the case of families – is beginning to crystallize in the statistics of non-payment of debt contracted in banks and financial companies.
According to the latest official data, in the first two months of the year, the productive system not only faces a credit retractionbut a accelerated deterioration in payment capacity which puts in check the sustainability of thousands of productive units.
The reduction that has just been implemented by Central Bank will give you oxygennot to the banks to regularize the situation of their SME clients, stand out in the entities themselves consulted by iProfessional.
The Government intends for banks to have more availability of pesos to lend. For this reason, days ago, the BCRA made the level of reserve requirements more flexible. Specifically, the monetary authority decided relax the minimum daily integration allowed to banks, which now drops from 75% to 65%. The measures seek to normalize the system after the drop in demand for money in 2025.
In any case, these banks also admit that the reviews of the portfolios will be carried out “on a case-by-case basis” and that it will take time for the measure to have a concrete effect on the day-to-day life of the companies.
In many cases these are small companies that are suffering from the decline in sales and profitability and a measure of this type can give them oxygen so that their credit rating does not worsen.
“The important thing here is that companies stay within the system. That they do not fall, because that would directly mean bankruptcy“, they crudely analyzed in one of the banks consulted.
An alarming jump in irregularity
The most worrying figure that emerges from the recent sector diagnosis is the increase in the number of companies that have fallen into default.
In January 2026, the SME portfolio in irregular situation (BCRA classifications 3, 4 and 5, which imply delays greater than 90 days) reached 8.2% of all companies.
To measure the speed of this deterioration, it is enough to observe that the number of SMEs with bank defaults of more than three months increased by 93.5% year-on-year compared to January 2025, according to a report from Abappra, the banking association that brings together public, provincial and municipal banks.
This phenomenon is not limited to slight delays.
When the focus is placed on the deepest delinquencies (situations 4 and 5, with arrears exceeding 180 days), the data show that the number of firms in this critical condition grew 84.9% in the last 12 months.
In terms of amounts, the irregular portfolio already represents 4.4% of the total value of loans granted to SMEs, a trend that increased steadily throughout the last year.
The same trend is observed in the case of unpaid family loans.
Without shelter: the impact is transversal
One of the most revealing data in the report is that the increase in delinquencies at the beginning of this year did not discriminate economic sectors.
The deterioration of the payment chain equally affected SMEs in the Services, Commerce, Agriculture, Construction, Industry and Mining sectors, which suggests that the problem does not respond to specific sectoral crises, but to a more generalized financial strangulation of the productive network.
The guarantee system, which usually acts as an early thermometer of risk, also emits red alert signals. Delinquency in the scheme Reciprocal Guarantee Societies (SGR) rose to 3.1% in January, while in the Public Guarantee Funds system, the figure rose to 5.2% of the total.
The gap with large companies and the tightening of credit
The financial diagnosis allows us to observe a growing disparity between the different sizes of companies.
While large companies showed a better relative performance during 2025 and the beginning of 2026, SMEs have suffered more severely from the financing contraction.
Added to the drop in the volume lent is a tightening of access conditions. A defensive measure by the banks, which in the midst of the rise in irregularities take care of their balance sheets and set limits on the exposure of their portfolio.
During the first two months, a reduction in the average term of single signature loans was consolidated.
At the same time, SMEs face an adverse rate differential: the cost they pay for current account advances is significantly higher than that paid by other legal entities. In a context where the 29% of SME credit is already denominated in dollarscurrency risk adds to interest rate pressure.
Federal x-ray of default
The geographical distribution of delinquency reflects the asymmetries of the Argentine productive reality.
Although the highest concentration of credit remains in Buenos Aires, CABA, Córdoba and Santa Fe (which group the 72.6% of the total stock), the highest rates of irregularity are found in provinces with more vulnerable productive structures.
Provinces with the highest default rates:
- Formosa: 13.8%
- Skip: 11.9%
- The Pampa: 11.4%
In contrast, districts like St. Louis (6.3%) either Missions (6.1%) present somewhat more stable compliance scenarios, although within a framework of general fragility.
expensive credits
The combination of persistent inflation and high interest rate for SME advances In relation to lines for large companies, it generates a scenario of “tweezers” on business profitability.
Companies are forced to resort more intensively to current account advances to finance their working capital, a short-term, high-cost instrument that often ends up fueling the vicious cycle of debt.
