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Brazil’s Banking System

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Post global recession, the Brazilian banking model is now internationally recognized as a highly efficient system. Many attribute its recent success to the sophisticated mechanisms and regulatory systems that were created during the ‘lost-decade’ of hyper-inflation.

Nowadays, financial regulation is very conservative and was created to ensure the banks would be able to regularly stress test their processes to check and balance their activities in a variety of hypothetical unstable environments. Internal controls, limits for client exposure, loss provisions, company credit capital are all closely and strictly monitored. The following practices are also worth highlighting:

– The minimum Basel Ratio of the Brazilian banking system is set at 11 percent, which 3 percent higher than what is suggested in the Basel Accord. Most banks, in reality, operate much higher than this level (at over 17.5 percent) with low leverage ratios (over six times the level of their capital holdings);

– All banking limits and requirements are applied in consolidated terms which means that so called toxic assets or special investment vehicles are put under heavy scrutiny;

– All investment funds are weighted in line with their corresponding assets. This is undertaken to ensure that leverage levels are reasonable and over-exposure is kept to a minimum;

– Over the Counter (OTC) derivatives need to be registered with the Central Bank (or face legal action);

– The Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission (Comisso de Valores Mobilirio) legally obliges all public companies to disclose all information with regards to the financial instruments that are being used. In addition, full sensibility’ analyses are undertaken on a regular basis;

– The central bank has control over all non-financial subsidiaries of banking institutions;

– Expected loss provisions are taken into consideration (not just actual losses);

– Liquidity and market risks are monitored intensively by the Central Bank on a daily basis;

– Bank reserves must cover all debt payments past;

– All lending above the value of $BRL 5,000 must be registered with the Central Bank;

– Issue ratings are regularly undertaken;

– Regulatory procedures are applied to all banks and are also regularly updated in line with financial innovations (approved by the Central Bank), international standards and conjuncture changes.

Many commentators attributed Brazils above average resistance to the effects of the global recession to these reasons. Indeed, at the onset of the global economic crisis, the securitisation market was less than 10 percent in comparison to the credit volume of the country which meant that the intersection between the two markets did not bring any significant damage.

At the close of first decade of the 2000s, Brazil was one of only four countries in the world with a wide spread on lending, with an average at over 30 percent. Indeed, the country was awarded first place for its high regulatory standards at the 2009 Financial Stability Forum’ in Basel that “helped it avoid the worst of the global economic crisis.” As pointed by Alexandre Tombini, Director of Regulation at the Central Bank: “We are used to dealing with challenging environments at our institutions and our regulations. Everything we have done since the mid-1990s has tended to take a more cautious approach.”

Below is a list of the main banking institutions of Brazil:

Central Bank of Brazil the highest monetary authority and the country’s governing body in all matters related to finance and economics. The institution is linked with the Ministry of Finance and decides the monthly SELIC interest rate.

Banco do Brasil the largest Brazilian and Latin American bank by asset values. With its headquarters in Braslia, it is also the oldest active bank in Brazil (founded in 1808).

Caixa Econmica Federal founded in 1861 (more commonly referred to as Caixa), nowadays the bank is well known for financing the civil and construction sectors; administering the Minha Casa, Minha Vida housing programme as well as being the large stakeholder in Brazils largest property and land portal: Zap.

The Brazilian Development Bank (Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econmico e Social or BNDES) established in 1952, it is now the second largest development bank in the world and is a federal public company associated with the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade.

Bradesco founded in 1943, it is one of the largest banks in operation in the country (it was formerly the largest until Banco Ita and Unibanco merged in 2009).

Ita Unibanco based in So Paulo, the bank was formed out a merger of Banco Ita and Unibanco in late 2008 and now operates as the largest financial conglomerate in the Southern Hemisphere and the 10th largest bank in the world.

Banco Santander Brasil founded in 1982, with its headquarters in So Paulo, major acquisitions were made in the late 1990s and 2000s including Banco Real, Banco Geral do Comrio, Banco Noroeste and Banespa.

Banco Real a Brazilian bank that was previously owned by ABN AMRO.

HSBC Brazil in 1997 Banco HSBC Bamerindus was set up to take over Banco Bamerindus do Brasil which was subsequently changed to HSBC Bank Brasil in 1999.

Safra with its headquarters in So Paulo, the bank is part of the larger Safra Group of financial institutions.

Banco Nossa Caixa the bank was incorporated into the Banco do Brasil in 2008, formerly serving as the financial agent of the State of So Paulo.

Overview Of Indian Banking Sector

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Liberalization of Indian Banking sector post 1991 led to a shift in banking culture from Class banking to Mass banking. This sector was and will continue to be the backbone of Indian economy. According to RBI, Indian banking industry is now well-regulated and adequately capitalized compared to banks across other developed countries. This has helped them in remaining resilient in the wake of global meltdown and sub-prime crisis.

Increasing presence of foreign banks, heightened competition and rapid technological advancement forced banks to become cost efficient and financially strong. Taking risks is part of a banks core business. They borrow money in the form of deposits and leverage it to lend it to borrowers at a higher rate. Banks therefore need to be highly regulated as even a small liquidity problem can create panic amongst depositors”, further deteriorating liquidity.

Since accepting deposits and providing loans and credit is primary business of a bank, some loans are bound to go bad. Making provisions for such losses on bad debts is therefore important to maintain liquidity. They also carry huge liabilities in the form of customer deposits. The best parameter used to judge a bank is the level of Non-Performing Assets it is carrying on its balance sheet. These are loans that do not pay off their principle amount or interest for at least 90 days. Due to its peculiar nature of business, cash flow statements of banks do not provide much insight into their performance.

Five important factors that investors should judge before investing in a bank are capital adequacy, credit quality, liquidity position, earnings and capital efficiency. Recent sub-prime crisis has highlighted the importance of banks” credit quality.

Banks usually pay-out dividends and are high yielding stocks. Performance of banking stocks on stock markets is directly impacted by overall economy”s health and changes in interest rates announced by RBI. This is reflected on Bankex, the index for banking stocks.

Indian banks are still recovering from the last year”s sub-prime effect and experts believe that several banks are still trading at a much lower price-to-earning ratio compared to the overall market. While public sector banks are shedding their excess flab by pruning manpower and NPAs, private banks are seen consolidating though mergers and acquisitions.

Government”s effort to encourage public sector banks to keep lending during the slowdown is expected to show positive results as soon as the economy shows positive signs. Private Banks played smart by shifting their focus from corporate lending to retail lending to cap their losses. Besides, indications from RBI that it does not plan to increase interest rates any time soon also helped improve investor sentiments about banking stocks. Experts believe that credit off-take will increase around 18% to 22% during the remaining part of this year driven by soaring demand from corporate sector.

The Basics of Investment Banking

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There are always entrepreneurs that are looking for cash inflows to help them grow their business and take it to the next level. There are also people that have surplus cash that they would like to grow by means of investments. Investment banking is simply facilitating the transfer of money from the investors to the entrepreneurs. In very simple words, it links one to the other. Investment banks help to bring in cash resources and then distribute it to those who are seeking the funds for their business interests. But that isn’t all that the banks do. They also include asset management for those who are too busy to manage their assets themselves. Generally investment banking services include facets of asset or portfolio management, tax management and other legal formalities related to wealth management.

They act as financial adviser who gives you relevant advice on matters pertaining to growing and managing your wealth. These might include matters like mergers and acquisitions, restructuring to gain better profits and so on. Investment bankers generally focus on initial public offerings or IPOs. They also focus on large share offerings, either public or private. They keep their focus on large companies, though – rather than small or medium level companies. Because they focus largely on fully grown, large scale companies, the banks don’t really bother with trade financing. Large scale companies as well established and don’t really require such services – if trade financing is what you want, then you want to turn to merchant banking instead of investment banking.

These services can be either fund based or fee based. You would do best to avoid people who may be getting commissions from investment houses – you have no guarantee that the advice they offer is the best for your money. This is where a good deal of research is required before moving on to hiring an investment banking services provider. Make sure that you thoroughly look into the background of the provider, and pay attention to how successful their advice has been to other clients. You would be handing over the responsibility of handling your wealth to others, it is the least and sensible advice. Remember, you need to make sure that you don’t start taking advice from random strangers about your wealth. This means that you need to know that the profession you hire is, in fact, a professional – and a successful one, at that. Doing your research before you hand over responsibility will save you a great deal of regret later on.

IT Support Services to Banking Sector

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With the other industries the banking industry is also growing at a significant good rate today. The main reason behind this is the use of the latest technology tools. In the olden days banking was done on paper but now it is done electronically with the help of computers. Many IT Support Company are giving their IT services to the banking sector.

It has been observed during the last few decades that IT infrastructure services have been taken by the banks and other financial institutions. In the early 80s the banks started to make their branches computerized and were purchasing the software packages. In the early 90s replacement of the computer systems with the inexpensive and latest technology powered PCs began. Information technology opened up the way for the banks to make their products sophisticated, diversified and adopting new techniques and make better market infrastructure. The internet has become the remote channel of communication between banks and its customers.

The E-Banking came to the United States of America and the United Kingdom in between 1020 to 1030 and now India is also following it. Most of the banks have made their services based on these technologies and equipments which are offered by many IT support companies. Now the customers can view their account summary, status, receipts, transaction records, can make online funds transfer and many more online options like these. Undoubtedly today banking has become more fast and easy and the customers expectations are also increased. Now the customer needs not to have its account summary on registers because everything is now online with the advent of the internet technology which is providing many benefits to the customers as well as the banks.

A customer can take his cash fast and easy with the use of an ATM machine. He can use his debit or credit card for purchasing purposes. He can use e-cheques, mobile banking, telephone banking and internet banking for remote transactions. He can also make payment transfers when the bank is closed. Easy to keep an eye or monitor the account status. It is cost effective for the bank because thousands of customers can be handled at a time and no need to use so many clerks.

We can say that technology has always played an important role in the growth of financial organizations and banks. It has shortened the paths of long transactions to smaller ones. It is giving proper service quality and satisfaction to the customers.

Investment Banking Industry Analysis

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The company features a market capitalization of 187.74 Billion, EPS is 5.60, P/E ratio is 8.87 along with the dividend yield is 3.06% at the annual dividend payout of 0.38.

Two with the most specific forms of banking are the corporate and Gary Silversmith. Corporate banking is involved inside the various transactions of up-and-coming small to large corporations and small business ventures; the focus is about the corporate accounts. On one other hand, investment banking is involved in the investment transactions of varied financial entities including corporations and governments; the focus is about the aspect in the investments. Let us differentiate corporate and investment banking.

Bankers will setup a meeting with the corporation called a pitch, through which they pitch the services in the firm for the company and present their analysis with the feasibility in the potential transaction. At the pitch, the bankers will present the opportunity client with a pitch book – often a hard-copy PowerPoint presentation that describes the credentials from the bank along which has a detailed analysis with the market in which the company operates and quite often a valuation in the company itself.

A bank which is linked to aiding companies in acquiring new funds, and advising them about different transaction they might engage in, could be called an Investment Banking Company. Funds may be generated by selling stock in the company itself inside capital market, or uncover investors who will be interested in capital raising. Sometimes they themselves will spend money on private equity, for a stake in the company.

Corporate real estate is a very valuable asset to all or any corporations. Real estate includes land or area including all of the fixtures attached with that chunk of property. It also usually includes the functional land or office buildings, along with the non-operational land owned with the corporation. This segment alone contributes about 30% in the capital assets of any organization. Naturally, this facet of management is often a matter of high priority with all of organizations worldwide.

So I wouldn’t normally expect everybody to sit down back and relax about it. I think that the actions were fairly justified. Now would this stay forever? We would need to watch to see. Now if you look in the nature from the regulation that is certainly happening, it is all around, making banks safer and also it really is around being sure that what banks are capable of doing with depositors money is limited to safer activities; meaning that you just cant do some from the stuffs that got us into trouble in a commercial bank, you therefore need different licence – a merchant banking licence.

The job requires an understanding of the markets along with a keen eye for companies with solid portfolios and income steams. The banker will find businesses eager to expand and recommend a good investment that correlates with all the projected profits. It is, rather, business forecasting in the banker behind all of this, is looking to help the businesses on their investments. The bank may seek a pursuit return or company shares or perhaps a percentage of profits. This shares risk and reward. One in the most highly publicized and desired (in terms of jobs) investment banks within the country is Goldman Sachs. Roam those halls and you will run into some from the most powerful people in the world.

When you receive into the lending company flick go through a couple past examples, internalize which, structure, components, and metrics used, and quite soon you’ll know how to produce company profiles without even referencing precedent samples.