Changes are going to benefit the citizen who will be able to get credit in another bank

The President of the Central Bank, Henrique Meirelles, said on Thursday (17th) that the institution will release within the next weeks a “new methodology” to calculate the bank spread. The intent is to make it more transparent to society, strengthen the competition among banks and, consequently, reduce the cost of credit in Brazil.

The statement was made during the public hearing held by the Joint Committee on the Budget, three Chamber committees (on Finances and Taxation; on Economic Development, Commerce and Industry; and on Financial Oversight and Control) and by two Senate committees (on Economic Affairs; and on Environment, Consumer Protection, Financial Oversight and Control).

According to Meirelles, the level of detail on information that will be disclosed is not still determined, but the measure, associated with the positive register – being considered in the Senate – will be relevant to reduce bank spread.

“We are improving the methodology. We have an improvement in benchmarking and spread calculation engines, so that people can see it and demand from their institutions”, he said.

“The methodology will allow consumers and regulators to better understand the composition of spreads, to know what is tax, administrative cost, defaults, waste, and profit. In short, it will allow society to be aware of spreads. This is a part of competition, it is transparency”, he added.

Crisis
During the event, the President of the Central Bank reiterated that Brazil is getting out of the global economic crisis with better economic indicators than those observed in the previous period, and in more favorable position than most countries.

Meirelles said that the country's international reserves are the largest ever achieved (222.3 billion dollars), having overcoming the pre-crisis level in August by reaching 205.1 billion dollars. “We are getting out of the crisis stronger and accumulating reserves, unlike some other countries that are losing it”, he said.

Public debt
Regarding the net public debt, the President of the Central Bank expects to close the year with 42.8% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). “Unlike other countries, we decreased the debt during the crisis, because we acquired reserves due to the currency exchange, and we are net creditors", he said. Henrique Meirelles mentioned the indicators of industrial production, use of industrial capacity, retail sales, production and trade of vehicle and job creation, in order to show Brazil’s “favorable” situation.

Reporting – Rodrigo Bittar
Edition – Wilson Silveira
Translation - Grupo Solucion-SP Language/Thiago Capatti