Control bodies are investigating credit lines, says Caixa

The president of Caixa Econômica Federal, Rita Serrano, said this Tuesday (30) that control and inspection bodies and an internal audit of the state bank are investigating two lines of credit created in 2022, in the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL): the payroll loan from Auxílio Brasil (today Bolsa Família) and the Microfinance program.

The granting of new loans from these two programs was interrupted by order of Caixa’s president as soon as she took office, at the beginning of this year. “Since my time as a board member, I have expressed concern about these measures, and questioned them for considering them questionable, implemented on the eve of the 2022 elections and with an excessive appeal to the vulnerable population’s indebtedness,” Serrano wrote on Twitter. .

“Emergency Aid Consignment reached the expressive mark of R$ 7.6 billion for 2.97 million customers at Caixa alone, not counting other financial agents. The Microfinance program involved more than R$ 3 billion and served 3.86 million customers”, added the president of Caixa. Known by the name of SIM Digital, the microcredit program aimed at entrepreneurs included people with negative CPF.

According to the executive, payroll delinquency remains under control because payments are deducted from the benefit itself. “However, the default of the Microfinance program exceeded 80%, and most of the losses will be covered by the FGM (Guarantee Fund for Microfinance), approved by Law 14,438/2022, which will use FGTS resources”, continues Serrano’s text . Despite these challenges, the president of the bank says that Caixa “remains solid”.

On Monday (29), a report on the UOL website stated that Caixa’s short-term liquidity index plummeted last year, pressured, among other factors, by these two lines of credit.

According to the website, the LCR, or short-term liquidity index, dropped from 400% in 2020 to 170% at the end of 2022. The index measures the amount of resources available to pay one-month obligations. In other words, in 2020 Caixa had reserves equivalent to four months of expenses, and at the end of 2022 they corresponded to less than two months. According to the website, the defense of Bolsonaro and the former president of the bank, Pedro Guimarães, did not comment on the investigation.