With a model in which customers are also owners, cooperatives have already entered the list of the largest financial institutions in Brazil
Sao Paulo – Credit unions are in Paulista Avenue and so on Faria Lima, in São Paulo, with physical branches. They are also among the participants in the pilot of drex, the future digital version of Real. In numbers, one of them, the you believe, is among the ten largest banks in the country in terms of asset volume, ahead of traditional banks. And, according to experts, the increase in the volume of deposits held by these institutions shows that they are beginning to compete more directly with banks.
data of Central bank show that, in March, cooperatives accounted for 6.9% of the BRL 4.8 trillion deposits held by financial institutions. They were still a long way from the banks, but growth over the past decade has been steady. The number was greater than the sum of deposits held with other types of participants in the financial system, such as payment institutions, a category that many of the best-known fintechs fall into.
