On the 24th, economist Armínio Fraga stated that it would have taken him a long time to act in the face of evidence of serious problems with the . In the opinion of the former president of the institution (1999-2002), the monetary authority had all the tools to monitor the financial institution, which had been showing critical signs for a long time.
Fraga did not make a more definite mention of the period to which he was referring. When should the BC have acted? We know that the current president, Gabriel Galípolo, took office at the beginning of 2025, and announced the intervention in November. Should I have done it sooner? Or would the difficulties already be detectable before 2025, during the management of (2019-2024), current vice-chairman of Nubank?
From what Fraga said, without the expected chronological precision, the “buzz already existed well before, a long time ago”. At least the evidence, he declared, “was out in the open.”
On Wednesday (28), an article with the title “Campos Neto knew about Master’s problems, but avoided intervening in the bank in his last year at BC”. According to the old daily, the former president of the institution “prioritized a market solution and would have acted to avoid liquidating the Master twice in 2024”. When contacted by the newspaper, he did not comment.
It should be noted that this was not an opinion article, with conclusions about the character’s ideological preferences and their hypothetical practical consequences in the evaluation and conduct of the case. Campos Neto, in any case, has always been inclined to the characteristic “let the market decide”. He had the sympathies of finance and was seen as the antipode of a still non-existent future Lula crony, who would come to end the BC’s autonomy and arbitrate the interest rate according to the wishes of the Planalto – which, far from that, did not happen.
Although he can be questioned because he is a member and watchdog of the PT government, the Minister of Finance, who is about to leave office, also put his finger on the matter: “I believe that Galípolo inherited a problem which is Banco Master. It was all created in the previous administration. Banco Master did not grow under the current administration. But this year, Galípolo peeled the pineapple.”
These manifestations are not definitive, but they leave the question about possible negligence in the air.
Arminio also mentioned, in the interview with Sheetto a thorny aspect, considering that “it is still not very clear why this matter went so far”, despite the BC having all the tools.
This opens up fertile ground for the imagination, in a country where fiction and reality are already practically the same thing.
To stay on a specific point: according to an investigation published by journalist Malu Gaspar, from O Globo, Ailton de Aquino Santos, director of Inspection since July 2023, had asked the former president of BRB, Paulo Henrique Costa, to acquire Master credits. Santos claims to have acted in good faith, without knowing about the fraud – there is no reason to doubt his word.
There are, however, reasons to believe that the BC’s actions throughout this massive Master case have many shadow areas yet to be illuminated.
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