With assets reaching US$ 93.283 billion (201.261 billion reais) Itaú has become Brazil’s number one private bank losing only to Banco do Brasil, which has US$ 129.979 billion (281.615 billion reais) in assets.
A Brazilian Central Bank survey released, yesterday, December 4, revealed the new ranking based in data from the end of September.
For decades Bradesco had been the incontestable heavyweight champion among Brazilian banks.
Bradesco, with US$ 90.7017 (195.680 billion reais) in assets has now been left behind together with Caixa Econômica Federal (Federal Savings Bank) whose funds sum US$ 92.314 (199.212 billion reais).
Until June, the Banco do Brasil came in first, followed by Caixa Econômica, Bradesco and then Itaú. The decisive factor in this jump was Itaú’s acquisition of BankBoston’s Brazilian operations. Announced in early May, the purchase was only concluded in August.
The bank of the Setúbal family (patriarch Olavo Setúbal, 83, is the active chairman and son Roberto Egydio Setúbal is the CEO) was created in 1945 as Banco Central de Crédito, which changed its name later to Banco Federal de Crédito.
The bank started in downtown São Paulo, on January 2. One year later it had added two branches (in Campinas and São João da Boa Vista in the interior of São Paulo) and counted on a staff of 22. This number has now risen to over 50,000.