Brazilian banks such as Banco do Brasil, Latin America’s largest commercial bank, and Banco Bradesco, Brazil’s biggest non-government bank are expanding services targeted at Brazil’s rich. Bradesco also recently started going after the affluent, opening offices called Prime for clients with at least 50,000 real ($17,000) to invest.
Argentines Wenceslao Casares and Guillermo Kirchner have a different idea: target Brazil’s poor. There certainly are a lot more poor people in a country with a minimum wage of $1,072 a year. Per capita income dropped 1.5% last year and is less than the equivalent of $300 a month, according to the federal statistics institute.