The performance of the Banco do Brasil’s Carteira de Crédito Agrícola e Industrial (CREAI): 1937-1969
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Abstract
Banco do Brasil’s Carteira de Crédito Agrícola e Industrial (CREAI) was the
most important institution for financing production in Brazil until the creation of the BNDE
in 1952. However, the work aimed at evaluating its performance is still scarce, even in the
face of his contribution in the period from 1937 to 1969, marked by the Import-Substituting
Industrialisation and developmentalism. The main hypothesis points out that, despite having
innovated by institutionalizing credit for production for the first time, the main limiting
factor for CREAI’s performance was its funding structure. The primary source is the Banco
do Brasil reports presented at the General Shareholders’ Meetings, using here the statistics of financing of economic activities and resource structure. The results confirm the hypothesis
but also highlight that the predominance of the agricultural sector cannot underestimate the
importance of the portfolio to industry financing, for the first time in an official way.
JEL Classification: G24, O23, O43.