State-owned Banco do Brasil is the largest bank by assets in Latin America so new business lines have to be pretty big to make an impact on the balance sheet. But the rationale for some of the bank’s businesses is to attract and retain customers, rather than just to boost the bottom line. Two such activities are the remittance business and microcredit; another is the creation of the subsidiary Banco Popular do Brasil to provide services for low-income groups without bank accounts.
“The total assets of Banco Popular are almost nothing in terms of Banco do Brasil’s assets, which closed last year at 253bn reais ($126bn),” says Banco do Brasil president Rossano Maranhao Pinto. “The most important thing with Banco Popular is the strategy, so that in the future we can gain new clients by introducing them to banking now.”
