The performance of the Banco do Brasil’s Carteira de Crédito Agrícola e Industrial (CREAI): 1937-1969

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.