A handful of Brazilian companies are disclosing exposure to Banco Master SA following the liquidation of the troubled lender and the arrest of its chief executive amid a sweeping corruption probe, Bloomberg News reported. Health-care provider Oncoclinicas reported holding 433 million reais ($81.1 million) in Master time deposits, known locally as CDBs.
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Brazil’s government on Tuesday shut down Banco Master, a bank worth up to $16 billion in assets, following a sprawling federal police fraud investigation, the Associated Press reported. Central Bank executive Fabio Carlos Ferreira said in a statement that all assets belonging to Banco Master and its current and former administrators have been seized. The bank, which has faced liquidity problems for months, is now under the control of a government-appointed administrator.
Brazil is looking at taxing the use of cryptocurrencies for international payments, two officials with direct knowledge of the discussions told Reuters, closing a loophole in the country's usual levy on foreign-exchange transactions. One of the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity about the confidential talks, said the Finance Ministry is looking at expanding its financial transaction tax (IOF) to some cross-border transfers using virtual assets and stablecoins that the central bank classified this month as forex operations.
Brazil's central bank effectively halted operations of mid-sized lender Banco Master, which had struggled in recent months with mounting liquidity pressures, on Tuesday as police arrested its controlling shareholder, Reuters reported. The regulator named a liquidator to handle creditor claims and sell assets, closing a turbulent chapter for Master, which had grown rapidly through an aggressive strategy built on high-yield debt sold through investment platforms.
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The United States said on Thursday that it will remove tariffs on some foods and other imports from Argentina, Ecuador, Guatemala and El Salvador under framework agreements that will give U.S. firms greater access to those markets, Reuters reported. The agreements are expected to help lower prices for coffee, bananas and other foodstuffs, a senior Trump administration official told reporters, adding the administration expected U.S. retailers to pass on the positive effects to American consumers.
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Brazilian state-run lender Banco do Brasil on Wednesday lowered its outlook for adjusted net income this year, citing higher funding expenses and rising defaults among local farmers, Reuters reported. The bank now expects annual net income of 18 billion t o 21 billion reais ($3.33 billion-$3.89 billion), down from a previous forecast of 21-25 billion reais. Banco do Brasil, long seen as a pillar of farm credit in the country, has been grappling with record default levels in its agribusiness portfolio, which hit results and raised investor concern over its exposure to the sector.
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Brazil's central bank is preparing to advance tighter regulation of the financial system to curb a rise in cyberattacks, the bank's supervision director, Ailton Aquino, said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. This year, 68 incidents have been reported through October, including 37 cases of fraud, he said at a press conference in Sao Paulo. That represents the highest number since the central bank began tracking such data in 2018 and is already above the 59 cases recorded in all of last year, according to the bank's Financial Stability Report released earlier in the day.
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Nine years after its first request for court protection, Oi has been declared bankrupt by a Rio de Janeiro court. In her ruling, Judge Simone Gastesi Chevrand, of the 7th Business Court of Rio de Janeiro— where the company’s restructuring case is being handled—ordered the suspension of all lawsuits and enforcement actions against the telecom carrier, as well as a ban on any sale or encumbrance of the bankrupt entity’s assets, ValorInternational.globo.com reported. The market reacted swiftly to the decision, sending the company’s shares tumbling.
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Brazil's central bank on Monday released long-awaited rules for trading virtual assets, including cryptocurrencies, that will extend existing rules against money laundering and terrorism financing to virtual-asset service providers, Reuters reported. Latin America's largest economy approved a legal framework for cryptocurrencies in 2022, but its rollout hinged on complementary regulation from the central bank, which later held four public consultations on the matter.
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Argentina may not ultimately need a bank loan, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said on Wednesday, adding Argentine President Javier Milei is doing a good job overhauling the country's troubled economy. "There is around $100 billion of foreign capital that may well come back to Argentina," Dimon said in a wide-ranging interview with Reuters in Detroit.