Banks in Brazil

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Table of Contents:

  1. Banks in Brazil
    1. Consolidation
    2. Banco do Brasil S.A.
      1. History
      2. International users
      3. Interest rates
  2. More links from KookyPlan

  

Related KookyPlan page:  lending to Brazilian companies

 

 

Banks in Brazil

 

Consolidation

As a result of the Credit crisis of 2008, we see consolidation...

 

 

Banco do Brasil S.A.

is a major Brazilian bank headquartered in Brasília. The bank was founded in 1808 and is the oldest surviving bank in Brazil — one of the oldest of Latin America.

 

Banco do Brasil is controlled by the Brazilian government but its stock is traded at the São Paulo Stock Exchange and its management follows standard international banking practices (Geneva Convention). Since 2000 it is one of the four most-profitable Brazilian banks (the others being, Bradesco, Banco Itaú, and Unibanco) and holds a strong leadership in retail banking.

 

History

Banco do Brasil was founded by the regent-prince João VI of Portugal to finance the public debt. It went bankrupt two times in history: one in 1821, when the regent-prince returned to Portugal taking with him the bank's assets, and the second in 1898.

 

From 1821 to 1967 Banco do Brasil was the monetary authority, issuing banknotes, regulating foreign commerce and serving as National Treasury holder for the government. It gradually lost its power with the creation of the Central Bank of Brazil in 1967 and the separation from National Treasury in 1987.

 

From 1992 onwards it was restructured as a commercial bank, using its huge geographic distribution and credit assets to leverage its redesign as a "normal" bank. In the process, tens of thousands of workers were laid off — most of them unskilled for any other job, many of whom expected to remain at the bank until retirement.

 

After decades of losses financed by the public treasury, the bank became very profitable and is one of the key structures used by the government to finance public programs, like "Fome Zero" (Zero Hunger) and DRS (Sustainable Regional Development).

 

International users

Accounts are intended for residents (temporary or permanent) of Brazil. As with any other banks in Brazil, documents required to open an account are:

 

a CPF registration;

a bonafide identity document, which can be an identity card, a Brazilian driver's license, a working permit, a passport or a special identity card;

a proof of residence (like an utility bill);

a recent paycheck or something else atesting your monthly income if you want to benefit from credit.

Documents will be photocopied and kept while the account is active.

 

Opening an account is quite straight-forward if you provide the required documents. A CPF card is obtainable by a foreigner in a few weeks with a passport and a birth certificate (Banco do Brasil itself is one of the places where you can apply for a CPF). Legal alien residents are given special identity cards which are bonafide nationwide.

 

The account is accessible at branches, ATMs and also online, some functions (like receiving a new ATM card) must be performed at the original branch (transferring an account from one branch to another is quite easy, anyway). Other than rudimentary credit or debit card transactions and payments from the checking account via the internet, it may be very difficult to make deposits from another country or to transfer large sums of money to another country without being present or having a proxy with power of attorney at the branch.

 

The account holder must renew the CPF online once every year (this is not needed if you pay income tax or apply for tax refunding). The account is frozen if the CPF lapses, and then it is a complicated process requiring in-person visits to renew it. The income taxes on investments are actually removed automatically from the accounts, and do not have to be reconciled with the government other than this simple online statement.

 

The array of services is huge with complex lists of taxes and automatic charges, and most services are described in Portuguese only. A security system requires that each computer be registered for use with advanced internet functions, and for this an auto-attendant password (and other passwords) must have been previously set up at the branch.

 

Banco do Brasil has a few branches in the USA (New York, Miami) and other countries. However, these branches are intended for use only by large companies and for permanent residents of Brasil who visit the other countries.'

 

 

 

 

 

Interest rates

Interest rates on loans vary to a great extent. A new applicant for a Visa or Mastercard credit card account, or somebody who overdrafts a checking account (within a pre-specified limit) can expect to pay well over 200% annual interest; whereas an account holder with more history can have much lower interest rates, perhaps as low as 50% on a credit card, or 24% on an income-secured or asset-secured ATM loan. High interest rates in Brasil also mean high returns on fixed-income low-risk investment accounts available automatically through the ATM. Potential high inflation is also a consideration, although Brasil has had its inflation under control (around 6% per year) between 2000 and 2006.

 

Banco do Brasil is not the only Brazilian bank with high interest rates. The Economist "Survey of International Banking" of 20 May 2006 reports that the average Brazilian interest rate on credit cards is 222%, even though inflation is under control, expected to be 5% for 2006. Collusion is suspected, but an economist from the Catholic university in Rio de Janeiro says it may be market segmentation (charging different prices to different sets of customers to absorb some consumer surplus). Brazilian interest rates are about 50% higher than interest rates in other developing countries.

 

One of the reasons for the large array of automatic services (loans, payments, investments via ATM, telephone, or internet) is that because of historical high inflation (even hyperinflation of over 100% per year) and high interest rates in Brasil, the country has developed an array of automatic payments systems, with the ability to pay an electric bill, for instance on the "day before" the due date, and the ability to parcel credit card charges from merchants into 2 to 12 monthly installments each charged to the credit card. Merchants offer this option in advertisements and price signs throughout the stores, and offer a discount for charges "à vista" (paid all in one charge). This discount usually reflects a much lower effective interest rate than the rates on the credit card accounts, making this a popular option in Brasil. Banco do Brasil offers a "grace period", letting account holders pay the entire balance just before the due date with an automatic payment from the checking account, and not charging any interest. In conjunction with the parceled charges offered by merchants, this gives account holders a chance for much lower effective interest rates.

 

 

 

 

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