Banco do Brasil
Encyclopedia
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
ian and Latin American bank by assets, and the third by market value. The bank, headquartered in Brasília
Brasília
Brasília is the capital city of Brazil. The name is commonly spelled Brasilia in English. The city and its District are located in the Central-West region of the country, along a plateau known as Planalto Central. It has a population of about 2,557,000 as of the 2008 IBGE estimate, making it the...
, was founded in 1808 and is the oldest active bank in Brazil — and one of the oldest financial institutions in the world.
Banco do Brasil is controlled by the Brazilian government but its stock is traded at the São Paulo Stock Exchange
Bovespa
The BM&FBOVESPA is a stock exchange located at São Paulo, Brazil. As of December 31, 2010 it had a market capitalization of US $1.54 Trillion, making it one of the largest in the world. On May 8, 2008, the São Paulo Stock Exchange and the Brazilian Mercantile and Futures Exchange merged,...
and its management follows standard international banking practices (Basel Accords). Since 2000 it is one of the four most-profitable Brazilian banks (the others being Itaú Unibanco, Bradesco, and Santander Brasil) and holds a strong leadership position in retail banking
Retail banking
Retail banking is banking in which banking institutions execute transactions directly with consumers, rather than corporations or other banks. Services offered include: savings and transactional accounts, mortgages, personal loans, debit cards, credit cards, and so forth.-Types of...
.
History
Banco do Brasil was founded by then prince-regent João VI of Portugal to finance the kingdom's public debt when he moved from Europe to BrazilTransfer of the Portuguese Court to Brazil
The Transfer of the Portuguese Court to Brazil was an episode in the history of Portugal and the history of Brazil in which the Portuguese royal family and its court escaped from Lisbon on November 29, 1807 to Brazil, just days before Napoleonic forces captured the city on December 1...
, in 1808. 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 1964 Banco do Brasil had sometimes performed tasks that exceeded its role as a traditional commercial bank, issuing currency, having the monopoly of currency exchange transactions and serving as National Treasury holder for the government. Such tasks were gradually given to other governmental institutions, mainly with the creation of the Central Bank of Brazil
Central Bank of Brazil
The Central Bank of Brazil is Brazil's monetary authority. It was established on December 31, 1964.The Central Bank is linked with the Ministry of Finance. Like other central banks, the Brazilian central bank is the principal monetary authority of the country...
in 1964 and the separation from the 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.
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" (No Hunger) and DRS (Sustainable Regional Development).
Branding
Since the early eighties the bank has sponsored several sports competitions (in sports such as beach soccer
Beach soccer
Beach soccer, also known as beach football or beasal, is a variant of association football played on a beach or some form of sand. The game emphasises skill, agility and shooting at goal....
, volleyball
Volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...
, tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
, table tennis
Table tennis
Table tennis, also known as ping-pong, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight, hollow ball back and forth using table tennis rackets. The game takes place on a hard table divided by a net...
, futsal
Futsal
Futsal is a variant of association football that is played on a smaller pitch and mainly played indoors. Its name is a portmanteau of the Portuguese futebol de salão and the Spanish fútbol de salón , which can be translated as "hall football" or "indoor football"...
, sailing
Sailing
Sailing is the propulsion of a vehicle and the control of its movement with large foils called sails. By changing the rigging, rudder, and sometimes the keel or centre board, a sailor manages the force of the wind on the sails in order to move the boat relative to its surrounding medium and...
and beach volleyball
Beach volleyball
Beach volleyball, or sand volleyball, is an Olympic team sport played by two teams of two players on a sand court divided by a net.Like volleyball, the object of the game is to send the ball over the net in order to ground it on the opponent’s court, and to prevent the same effort by the opponent....
). It is the official sponsor for Robert Scheidt
Robert Scheidt
Robert Scheidt is a renowned Brazilian sailor, having won two gold medals and two silver medals from four Olympic Games...
, Gustavo Kuerten
Gustavo Kuerten
Gustavo Kuerten is a retired former World No. 1 tennis player from Brazil. He won the French Open three times between 1997 and 2001, and was the Tennis Masters Cup champion in 2000...
, and the Brazilian national beach soccer, volleyball and futsal teams.
The bank also sponsors other cultural events such as plays through its organization CCBB (Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil
Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil
The Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil is a cultural organization of the Banco do Brasil based in Brazil with centers in Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia, and São Paulo....
) and amateur sport through AABB (Associação Atlética Banco do Brasil).
Services
Besides commercial and government services, the bank offers a large variety of services to the consumer including bill payment services (BoletoBoleto
Boleto Bancário, simply referred to as Boleto is a payment method in Brazil regulated by FEBRABAN, short for Brazilian Federation of Banks....
), ATM loans, and a single package that contains the account numbers for checking, multiple savings accounts, and investment account. The account holder may apply for international Mastercard and Visa debit cards which act as both a credit card
Credit card
A credit card is a small plastic card issued to users as a system of payment. It allows its holder to buy goods and services based on the holder's promise to pay for these goods and services...
on a loan account, and as a debit card
Debit card
A debit card is a plastic card that provides the cardholder electronic access to his or her bank account/s at a financial institution...
on the checking account (a little different from the arrangement in many other countries, where both the debit and credit functions of a debit card act on the checking account). The list of services offered encompass many complex automatic functions from ATMs and online such as a wide variety of loans, automatic payments, Brazilian bill payments, and deposits to other Brazilian accounts. Many merchants routinely accept account-to-account transfers as payment for goods.
International users
Banco do Brasil has a few branches in the USA (New YorkNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, Miami) and other countries. These branches are intended for use by large companies and for permanent residents of Brasil who visit the other countries, but they offer regular services for residents of the countries where they are located.
Banco do Brasil has been expanding its international presence and currently has more than 44 points of service abroad, divided into branches, sub-branches, business units / offices and subsidiaries.
Offices and subsidiaries
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Interest rates
Interest rates on loans vary to a great extent but, being a public-owned bank that operates as a commercial venture, Banco do Brasil is not noted for having the highest, or the lowest rates either. Banco do Brasil is not the only Brazilian bank with high interest rates. The Economist "Survey of International Banking" of May 20, 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. Interest rates have decreased slowly, despite the Brazilian Central Bank recent policy of dropping standard interest rates (which were of 8.5% per month as of June 2009).Relationship with the government
Traditionally the CEO is appointed by the Brazilian presidentPresident of Brazil
The president of Brazil is both the head of state and head of government of the Federative Republic of Brazil. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the Brazilian Armed Forces...
but usually picked from a list career directors. A few CEOs were taken from outside the financial industry.
Banco do Brasil has the monopoly of a number of government funding programs, like Pronaf (National Subsistence Farming Support), DRS, Fome Zero (zero hunger), PASEP , and others, and is the bank of choice for most municipal and state governments.
Working at Banco do Brasil
Because it is public-owned, Banco do Brasil must recruit workers by a Concurso Público (public draft process) and carry on strict norms of business. Working at Banco do Brasil is still a desirable job in most of Brazil. These processes are usually made separately for each region, and the approved candidates can be recruited to any branch in that region during the next two years in order of classification (it can be delayed for plus two years, once in each process). Candidates must be Brazilian nationals (or legal residents and naturalised) and must prove not to be in fault with their military and electoral obligations (both draft and vote are mandatory for all Brazilians from 18 to 70).Other public-owned Brazilian banks, like Caixa Econômica Federal
Caixa Econômica Federal
Caixa Econômica Federal , also referred to as Caixa or CEF, is a Brazilian bank. It is the largest government-owned financial institution in Latin America. It is the largest bank in Brazil and in Latin America by assets....
, Banco da Amazônia, and Banco do Nordeste do Brasil also carry on similar processes but the one carried on by Banco do Brasil is the archetypal Concurso Público in Brazil.