The Brazilian capital markets boom arrived so quickly that several of the major investment banks were caught off guard. As a result, the US bulge bracket (major investment banks) is behind the curve in Brazil in terms of market share and it faces great challenges in catching up as there are limited acquisition options. The alternative is a slower, organic growth of the business.
“The only active US bank [in the capital markets] is Citigroup. The Swiss banks are here, there are the local banks and ABN AMRO,” says Jose de Menezes Berenguer Neto, executive vice-president and head of capital markets for Banco Real ABN AMRO. “The local presence of banks such as Goldman, Lehman, Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch is small and quite limited and disproportionate to their share of the global market.”
