About Banco Macro

Banco Macro S.A. (Banco Macro) operates as a financial institution. The company offers traditional bank products and services to companies, including those operating in regional economies, as well as to individuals, thus reinforcing the company's intention to be a multi-service bank. In addition, Banco Macro performs certain transactions through its subsidiaries, including mainly Macro Bank Limited, Macro Securities S.A.U., Macro Fiducia S.A.U., Macro Fondos S.G.F.C.I. S.A., Argenpay S.A.U. and Fintech SGR. The company is one of the leading banks in Argentina and the largest in terms of number of branches, with an excellent face-to-face service complemented by digital channels. Through them, the company provides solutions to key players that generate economic and social value (public sector, large companies and corporations), and promote accessibility and financial inclusion of people from vulnerable sectors, professionals, entrepreneurs, and small and medium-sized companies. As of December 31, 2022, on a consolidated basis, the company had approximately 4.6 million retail customers and 0.1 million corporate customers; and approximately 1.0 million customers with employee payroll accounts for private sector and provincial governments and 0.7 million retiree customers. The company offers savings and checking accounts, credit and debit cards, consumer finance loans, and other credit-related products and transactional services available to the company's retail customers and SMEs through the company's branch network. The company also offers Plan Sueldo payroll services, lending, corporate credit cards, mortgage finance, transaction processing and foreign exchange. In addition, the company's Plan Sueldo payroll processing services for private companies and the public sector give the company a large and stable customer deposit base. Strategy The company's strategies are to place sustainability at the center of the agenda and in the top management of each of the financial entities; understand the importance of the social-environmental risk analysis of the projects undertaken and the loans granted by the banks, focusing on analyzing not only the repayment capacity but to understand how those projects influence and affect the society and environment; promote the creation of new products and services associated to the green or sustainable agenda; and generate education and training to develop and extend these concepts to the entire financial system. Products and Services With a portfolio of products and services for every type of person, company and organization, the company seeks to transmit drive and optimism to think big from a wide range of solutions and services with knowledge, proximity and innovation. The company offers a relatively narrow range of standard products, which are generally available to both the company's retail and corporate customers. The company has a holistic approach to its banking business and do not manage the bank by segments or divisions or by customer categories, by products and services, by regions, or by any other segmentation for the purpose of allocating resources and assessing profitability. The company's strategy is to grow its business, as demand for credit in Argentina increases, by focusing on cross-selling opportunities among the company's broad customer base. The following discussion of the company's business follows broad customer categories of retail and corporate as a way to understand who the company's customers are and the products and services that the company provides. Retail Customers The company serves its retail customers with the intention of satisfying their financial needs, whether savings, transactional or funding. Retail customers are classified according to their labor condition or their main income source, in the following categories: Plan Sueldo (Salary Plan), Retirees, Open Market and Professionals and Business. The company provides services to them throughout Argentina, in particular in areas outside the City of Buenos Aires, which have higher concentrations of low- and middle-income individuals who are traditionally underserved by large private banks. The company serves its retail customers through the company's extensive, nationwide branch network. Approximately 94% of the company's branches are located outside the City of Buenos Aires. The company offers its retail customers traditional banking products and services, such as savings and checking accounts, time deposits, credit and debit cards, consumer finance loans (including personal loans), mortgage loans, automobile loans, overdrafts, credit-related services, home and car insurance coverage, tax collection, utility payments, ATMs and money transfers. The company's retail customers provide the company with a key source of funding, as well as a significant interest and fee income. The company's large retail customer client base provides the company with an excellent opportunity to expand the volume of the company's lending business. The company's efforts have been aimed at strengthening relationships with the company's customers by offering them the products that are best suited to their needs and circumstances, through the company's individualized, professional advice, which is an important feature that distinguishes the company in its target markets. Savings and Checking Accounts and Time Deposits The company generates fees from providing account maintenance, account statements, check processing and other direct banking transactions, direct debits, fund transfers, payment orders and bank debit cards. In addition, the company's time deposits provide the company with a strong and stable funding base. The company's commercial and customer bonding actions enable the company to achieve growth in the deposit portfolio above market levels, mainly due to an increase in time deposits of retail customers which intensified funding diversification. Accounts and account packages are the primary channels for cash deposits and are two of the main drivers of fee income. For this reason, the company focuses on the life cycle of the account packages, promoting loyalty measures and retention of the company's products. In 2020, the company launched the Universal Free Account, aimed at people who did not have an account in the Financial System in order to encourage the financial inclusion of the unbanked. On the other hand, the Onboarding web was implemented to make it possible to register customers and open savings accounts on the web in simple steps. Within the framework of the COVID-19 pandemic, the company had to implement a set of exceptional measures established by the Government through the Central Bank, such as the suspension of fees and charges for accounts and packages during the month of March 2020 and the suspension of fees for ATM transactions in the country until December 31, 2020, without any distinction between customers and non-customers and the type of account on which the transaction is made. Through Central Bank Communications 'A' 6893 and 'A' 7225, dollar savings accounts were implemented, so that customers who so decided could repatriate their funds held abroad. With Communication 'A' 7384, the Caja de Ahorro para Turistas (Tourist Savings Bank) began to be offered. In order to improve the company's customers' experience, the company implemented significant improvements in the 100% digital account opening process, allowing 7x24 management with the possibility of downloading the Macro App and starting to operate at the same time. The company's 'debit card' service is critical within the framework of the company's strategy to increase customer transactions by encouraging the use of accounts. Debit card services also help to develop account balances into transactional accounts, as deposits increase, thereby expanding the company's demand deposit base. In 2019, the company incorporated contactless technology in the generation of 100% of the issuances, renewals and reprints of debit cards. The company also increased the limits of extraction, purchase and transference in order to favor the use of automated channels to obtain cash. In the COVID-19 pandemic framework, the company extended the validity of debit cards so that customers could continue to make ATM withdrawals and not be forced to go to the branch. Lending Products and Services The company offers personal loans, document discounts, residential mortgages, overdrafts, pledged loans and credit card loans to the company's retail customers. The company intends to continue to increase its retail lending by focusing the company's marketing efforts on underserved target markets, such as low- and middle-income individuals. The company also plans to continue to cross-sell its retail lending products to the company's existing customers, particularly targeting those who may choose to open savings and checking accounts with the company because the company already provides their payroll and pension services. The company developed a loan offer for all socioeconomic levels, making the requirements more flexible with improvements in the credit evaluation tools. On the other hand, the company has been able to provide special financing alternatives for those who had to face the restructuring of their debts due to non-payment of installments during the pandemic. During 2021, the company launched a new indirect sales channel, 'Rapicompra', which allowed the company to finance products at the point of sale. It was also added the possibility of approaching credit products in a completely digital way thanks to the sale of loans to non-digital customers, with security measures that allow validating the identity with certainty. During 2021, the company launched the campaign 'Jubilate con Macro' (Retire with Macro), aimed at customers who are about to retire and retirees and pensioners who receive their pension payments in another bank. During 2022, a new direct sales channel was launched, which allowed the company to bring financial products to people in a 100% digital way, so that they could access a loan or a card without having to go to a bank branch. This operation also allowed the company to reach non-digital customers, with security measures that allow the company to validate their identity with certainty. In the retired segment, the company continued to reinforce the campaign 'Jubilate con Macro', aimed at customers who are about to retire, and retirees and pensioners who receive their salaries in another bank, reaching more than 60,000 potential customers. On the other hand, the company launched the campaign for the recovery of retirees, aimed at people who decided to collect their assets in another bank. Plan Sueldo Payroll Services The company handles payroll processing for private sector companies and the public sector, which require employers to maintain an account with the company for the direct deposit of employee wages. The company provides payroll services for the governments of the Argentine provinces of Misiones, Salta, Jujuy and Tucumán; and to the private sector for a total aggregate of 1.7 million retail clients (including retirees). The company's Plan Sueldo payroll services provide the company with a large and diversified deposit base with significant cross-selling potential. Corporate Customers The company provides its corporate customers with traditional banking products and services, such as deposits, lending (including overdraft facilities), check cashing advances and factoring, guaranteed loans and credit lines for financing foreign trade and cash management services. The company also provides them trust, payroll and financial agency services, corporate credit cards and other specialty products. The company has five categories of corporate customers: (1) Businesses and Professionals, which includes individuals with commercial activity with an annual turnover of more than Ps. 3.6 million and under certain conditions; (2) small companies, which register up to Ps.3,000 million in sales per year; (3) medium-sized and large companies, which register more than Ps.3,000 million and less than Ps.10,000 million in sales per year; (4) agricultural companies, which include individuals and companies who operate in agriculture or in the commerce of agricultural products; and (5) corporate companies which register more than Ps.10,000 million in sales per year. The company supports productive activities through the promotion of development, new trends and innovation, since the company's intention is to continue offering the best services for market participants active in agriculture, industry and commerce. Based on values of close customer relationships, effort, hard work, dedication and community, the company offers financing lines according to each customer profile that contribute to their growth, their development and that of their communities. At present, the company has a network of branches with business officials specialized in each category, offering a wide range of products, including working capital facilities, and credit for investment projects, leasing and foreign trade transactions. The company's corporate customer base also acts as a source of demand for the company's excess liquidity through overnight and short-term loans to large corporate customers. Lending Products and Services The company offers short-term and medium- to long-term corporate lending products. Short-term: Products include credit lines for up to 180 days and consist mainly of overdraft facilities, corporate credit and debit cards and factoring, as well as foreign trade related financing, such as pre-export, post-shipment and import financing. These products also include contingency lines, such as short-term guarantees (performance guarantees and bid bonds) and import letters of credit. Medium- to long-term: Products include credit lines and specific lending facilities of more than 180 days. Credits are usually asset-based, such as leasing, whereby a credit enhancement is achieved by means of the underlying asset. Medium - to long-term facility risks are mitigated through different mechanisms that range from pledges and mortgages, to structured deals through financial trusts whereby the debtor pledges the underlying asset, mostly future income flows. Regardless of the term and based on the fact that these credit lines are devoted to small to medium-sized companies, the company's policy is to require personal guarantees from the owners, although the underlying debtor rating remains unchanged. The company supported the growth of SMEs through the development of businesses and sustainable links throughout the country. The geographic distribution, proximity, personalized attention and the knowledge of the company's clients and the regional economies allow the company to detect their needs and support them in the financing of their projects, as well as to provide transactional solutions for the management of their payments and collections. The company has continued with actions aimed at financing small-scale client producers and suppliers of the value chain of the company's Megra (Medium and Large Sized Companies) customers. Within the company's Corporate Banking division ('Corporate Banking'), the company sought to strengthen its relationship with existing and new clients, in order to position ourselves as one of the main banks in the corporate banking sector. This allowed the company to provide specialized assistance to each of the companies which constitute the different value chains, with products tailored to their needs. Regarding the company's Agro Banking division ('Agro Banking'), the company continued to support regional economies with tailor-made products for sectors such as tobacco, sugar and yerba mate, by financing all value chains from the primary producer to the industrial producer. In 2020, regarding SMEs and Micro-enterprises segments, the company implemented a new SMEs segmentation focused on the activity of the company's customers, which allowed the company to develop a specific and exclusive value proposition for retailers, small businesses and institutions. The company simplified and improved the credit process, incorporated improvements in the company's credit analysis tools and engines, and increased the nominal caps ratings in order to provide a better quality of response. Also, in order to better understand the needs of the sector, the company launched the new SMEs customer experience survey. In order to provide the company's customers with more tools, the company accelerated the digital transformation. At the same time, the company prioritized generating proximity with these segments by improving personalized attention and focusing on strengthening long-term relationships. The company managed to maintain its positioning based on a proactive commercial strategy, the company strengthened the teams of collaborators that serve this segment and reinforced the training of officers in all divisions. Regarding Megra Banking, the pandemic challenged the company to strengthen contact with its customers by initiating early on the modality of virtual meetings (Zoom, Teams, etc.) and communication via chat between account officers and customers. These alternative channels allowed the company to maintain proximity quickly and efficiently to ensure and facilitate the bank's operations. The company also held virtual seminars on regulatory changes in foreign trade so that the company's customers could operate with greater security and knowledge. Regarding Corporate Banking, the company focused this year on increasing the number of deposits (especially demand deposits) and, in cash management operations, incorporating eCheq and digital means of collection. During the pandemic, the company financed corporate customers in the health sector with a 24% line of credit in order to cope with the economic situation in the context of the pandemic. The company decided to contain and assist them, both virtually and in person, by financing working capital and investment projects, financing the purchase of agricultural machinery and investments or the purchase of assets. The company also simplified the processes of operating directly with grains and entered into alliances with manufacturers to provide predictability. The company continues with promotions on the rural credit card and provide personalized advice to the company's customers. During 2020, the company supported its customers with special financing lines to pay salaries and meet working capital needs, with zero-rate loans and the ATP governmental program. The company also provides financing in line with commodity crop cycles and regional production. The company also professionalized the model of integral attention for agricultural producers with an integrated offer of financing and grain commercialization. And the company adapted the way the company serves its customers in the context of the pandemic, incorporating video calls as a means of communication, reorganizing internal processes and rapidly migrating to the acceptance of digital signatures with their due authorizations. In 2021, as regards SMEs and Micro-enterprises, the company promoted self-management from digital channels, expanded additional personalized attention on the web page, and implemented a new automatic rating renewal process, which included the extension of limits and the relaxation of requirements for credit evaluations. Special financing lines were also offered for working capital, productive investment, and salary payments. As for Corporate Banking, it generated integral proposals and transactional solutions to improve the productive capacity of its clients and help them grow. Thanks to an alliance with FINOVA, a strategic supplier, the company has been able to provide capital financing solutions for suppliers of corporate clients and achieve the financial inclusion of sectors with low or no sophistication. In 2021, in terms of Agro Banking, overcoming the challenges of the sanitary emergency, the company conducted field visits and face-to-face and virtual business rounds with producers (customers and non-customers) from all over the country. In addition, the company enhanced the agricultural value chain through contact with companies selling inputs, seeds and capital goods to provide customers with an exclusive digital solution that allowed them to obtain the best cash prices and to finance the purchase at harvest. The company also supported its customers with special financing lines for the payment of salaries and to meet working capital needs according to commodity crop cycles and regional productions. The company increased the amounts of assistance to qualified customers, in order to meet the needs of producers, and the company expanded its offer with dollar-linked fixed terms and mutual funds, among others. During 2022, the company deepened its focus on SMEs value chain, providing the company's suppliers and customers with collection and payment solutions, special financing lines for working capital, and a differential value proposal for the Plan Sueldo. Likewise, the company focused on attracting new Plan Sueldo´s capita through an exclusive working capital qualification line for those customers who did not credit salaries in the bank. In relation to Megra Banking, the company defined a new matrix service model between the divisions and the Megra Banking Management in order to provide better customer service. The company approached the client jointly with the Megra officers of each division and the specialists of each product (cash, comex, Plan Sueldo, investments), to offer an integrated proposal to the client. The company also incorporates digital solutions to optimize its clients' treasury. Following the commercial strategy implemented in Agro Banking, the company remained close to its customers with visits to their fields, lunches, business rounds, agricultural exhibitions from the north to the south of the country. The company strengthened the integration of the agricultural value chain with companies selling inputs, seeds and capital goods, achieving alliances with more than 250 regional and national businesses throughout the country. On the other hand, the company supports the customer with an exclusive digital solution 'Campo Simple' that allows the company's customers to obtain the best prices for inputs in cash and finance them at harvest and with a unified package for all individuals in the segment, with a unified and differential product through which they have access to all products for their personal and business use, in one single place, at a single cost. From the financial point of view, the company supports its agro customers, especially SMEs, with special lines of financing for investment and working capital needs, according to the production cycles of commodities and regional productions. To encourage the development of regional economies, the company increased the lines of credit promoted by the national government (Línea de Financiamiento para la Inversión Productiva) and by the provincial governments of Salta, Jujuy, Misiones and Tucumán, with rates subsidized by FONDEP (Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Productivo) and guaranteed by FOGAR (Fondo de Garantías Argentino) to contribute to investments and working capital financing. The company implemented an agreement between Banco Macro, the Federal Investment Council (CFI) and Garantizar Sociedad de Garantía Recíproca to implement operations of the CFI with a digital guarantee of the SGR and to expedite the implementation of loan operations for the credit lines for the Productive Reactivation and for Regional Exportable Production. Government Banking It is the responsibility of the Government Banking Management to manage the links and actions with the National, Provincial and Municipal Public Sector at the central and decentralized levels, as well as with the autonomous entities to which the company provides financial services for their administration and for the development of their communities. In 2022, in addition to the advances in the payment ecosystem and in the digitalization of banking, and in order to contribute to the reactivation of the productive sector of the regional economy, the company has offered financial assistance lines for working capital an investment to SMEs for more than Ps. 2,700 million in the provinces of Salta, Jujuy, Misiones, Tucumán and Catamarca in an articulated manner with each provincial government and with SMEs at the national level. Finance Banking The company serves the Institutionalized Financial Sector, controlled by the Central Bank, which includes Public, Private, National and Foreign Banks, who maintain relationship with the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic. It also includes institutional investors (ART, Insurance Companies, etc.). The company provides financial and investment banking services -funds, bonds, corporate bonds- within the capital market. The company continues to maintain its leadership in the organization and financing of financial trusts with public offerings. During 2022, the company worked hard to assist clients towards their first trust issuance in the market, expanding the company's client base. The company also accompanies the large demanders of capital market financing, such as retail companies and Megra clients related to the agricultural sector. Transaction Services The company offers transaction services to its corporate customers, such as cash management, collection services, payments to suppliers, payroll services, foreign exchange transactions, foreign trade services, corporate credit cards, and information services, such as the company's Datanet and Interpymes services. Payments to Suppliers. The company's payments for supplier services enable its customers to meet their payment obligations to their suppliers on a timely basis through a simple and efficient system. This service also provides payment liquidations, tax payment receipts, invoices and any other documents required by the payer. Collection Services. The company's collection services include cash or check deposits at the company's branches, automatic and direct debits from checking or savings accounts and the transportation of funds collected from corporate customers to the company's branches for deposit. The company's extensive branch network enables the company to offer fast and efficient collection services throughout Argentina, which is of critical importance to both regional and nationwide companies. Datanet and Interpymes. The company provides its corporate clients with access to the Datanet service ('Datanet'), which is an electronic banking network linking member banks in Argentina. This service permits the company's clients to obtain reliable online information on a real-time basis from their bank accounts in Datanet, as well as to perform certain transactions. Interpymes is an electronic banking system designed to meet the needs of small businesses. It does not require special installation procedures and is easily accessible through the internet, helping to simplify day-to-day operations for the company's customers. Tax Collection and Financial Agency Services. The company also has exclusive, long-term arrangements to provide tax collection and financial agency services to four provinces: Salta, Misiones, Jujuy and Tucumán. These contracts expire in 2026, 2029, 2024 and 2031, respectively. Payroll services. The company provides payroll services to four provinces and to the private sector. Distribution Network As of December 31, 2022, the company had the largest private sector branch network in the country, with branches spread throughout Argentina. In particular, in line with the company's strategy of expanding nationally, the company has extensive coverage in the Argentine provinces with 94% of the company's branches located outside the City of Buenos Aires. Furthermore, as of December 31, 2022, the company had ATMs, self-service terminals ('SSTs') and several service points used for social security benefit payments and servicing of checking and savings accounts and internet home banking service ('Home Banking'). Technology, Automated Channels and Credit Cards Processing Systems The company's technological development is continuous and the number of alternative methods to perform banking transactions is increasing. Automated channels allow the company's clients to perform banking transactions with enhanced speed, comfort and safety, offering a wide variety of available transactions. The company strengthened its website with a range of tools and means of communications to encourage online transactions, avoid crowds and keep the company's customers updated. In 2021, the company continued with the implementation of the new Customer Service Model in branches to enable the self-management of after-sales transactions. The new customer service model contemplates a digital experience assisted by an educator who acts when required. In 2021, the company sought to offer new self-management functionalities through Operaciones Simples (Simple Operations) in the bank's portal. In 2022, the company continued to advance in the implementation of digital solutions, incorporating operations and services to provide a better experience to customers in all segments, both for their self-management and remote virtual operations, as well as to simplify their face-to-face operations. Within this framework, the role of communications and customer training is key to achieve the changes towards digitalization. During 2022, the company improved the virtual assistant platform so that both customers and non-customers could, in addition of resolving queries, perform operations. In this way, they could: register accounts, find out where their cards are in distribution, unblock passwords, renew 'Fe de vida', etc. The company has ATMs that operate independently of the branch and offer money extraction service and balances consultation, among other operations. Furthermore, the company continued strengthening and updating the technology offered at the company's ATMs, maintaining strict standards of security, quality of service and availability in the ATM network. The company has SSTs terminals distributed in its branch network across Argentina, offering an ample variety of operations, including the possibility of making deposits twenty-four hours a day, every day, all year long. As part of the plan to reduce branch tasks, during the last years the company expanded the network of terminals with intelligent functionality that incorporate intelligent check deposit. In this way, customers can perform transactions in a more agile manner eliminating waiting times at branches. In 2022, the company reached a total of smart self-service terminals installed in branches throughout the country, in which an average of approximately 176,000 transactions were carried out monthly. Regarding Home Banking, the company has implemented a collections service for companies offering the following benefits: security (no cash or checks are transported to the branch), practicality (easy and safe, backup of receipts in a PDF file, possibility to review the history of payments and receipts), accessibility (from any computer) and no additional cost. The company also uses Home Banking to inform its retail customers about the possibility of getting a personal loan, the amount available and how to apply for it. In 2020, the company added certain functionalities to its Home Banking in order to facilitate the user experience. Nowadays, customers can operate consultative and transactional modules, through administrators and operators who are fully compliant with the established powers. For example, payroll, supplier and foreign trade payments are now available, enabling the company to provide a fully digital solution. The company's Macro Banca Móvil channel has developed significantly in the last years. In line with the characteristics of the users and the technological trends supporting the development of the service, the Macro Banca Móvil application is available in the main virtual stores of the principal operating systems. History Banco Macro S.A. was incorporated in 1966.