The statements in the video in which Tati Mandelli cites a dinner between former President Lula (PT) with bankers and says that the meeting was motivated by the reaction of banks in the face of an alleged banking inclusion promoted by Jair Bolsonaro (PL) with Auxílio Emergency and Pix.
Pix, as verified by the Comprova Project, began to be developed by the BC (Central Bank) still under the Michel Temer (MDB) government, in 2018. The R$ 600 Emergency Aid, paid from 2020, is also not the work of Bolsonaro. The project was proposed and approved by the National Congress and sanctioned, with vetoes, by the president.
In addition, the earnings of all banks fell in 2020 compared to 2019, including those of Caixa and BB. The Central Bank attributed the drop to the pandemic, not to banking inclusion. In 2021, earnings rose again.
Misleading, for Comprova, is content taken from the original context and used in another so that its meaning is altered; that uses inaccurate data or that leads to an interpretation different from the author’s intention; content that confuses, with or without the deliberate intent to cause harm.
Scope of publication
The video, aired on June 27, 2022, went viral in late July. On August 8, 2022, it had 41,600 likes on the social network Kwai. On the same date, the publication on Instagram accumulated 6,000 likes, and the video on YouTube, 1,900 likes.
what the author says
Sought, the author of the video did not return the contact of the report.
How do we check
To find the original post, we Googled the name “Tati Mandelli” and filtered the search by videos. It was possible to identify that the businesswoman participates in a program on a digital radio called Brado Rádio, self-styled as the first conservative radio station in Brazil.
On the vehicle’s YouTube channel there is a section for the Brado Jornal program, with which Mandelli collaborates. From the news that were displayed on the sign of the edited version of the video on the social network Kwai, it was possible to determine a time range in which the program was aired. We watched the episodes and identified the one in which the viral comment was aired. Mandelli’s commentary begins at 2:39 am on the June 27, 2022 issue.
We sought Lula’s advice to confirm that the dinner took place. We consulted BC files to verify the creation of Pix. The fundamental requirements for creating an instant payments system were approved in December 2018. We also consulted in the Federal Senate the bill that created Emergency Aid and reports already published by Comprova.
To verify the impact of banking inclusion for private banks, the report interviewed José Márcio Camargo, professor of economics at PUC-Rio (Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro) and chief economist at Genial Investimentos.
The report obtained data on bank profits by consulting annual reports from Itaú (2020 and 2021, Bradesco (2020 and 2021) and Santander (2020 and 2021), available on the internet. BC with data from 2020 and 2021.
Dinner
The dinner in which Lula participated, mentioned in the investigated video, took place on June 20 of this year in São Paulo. The information was confirmed by the candidate’s advisor.
The context, still according to reports, was to get closer to entrepreneurs during the pre-campaign and to expand the dialogue with the productive sector. Bolsonaro, who is running for reelection, also met with bankers on August 8.
Mandelli’s comments follow what Jair Bolsonaro has been saying. In a live on social media held on July 28, the president said that bankers must lose R$ 22 billion because of the use of Pix, which is false. According to the president, as Pix does not charge fees for its transfers, bankers would be losing money.
banking inclusion
In the video, Mandelli says “that bankers hate Bolsonaro because he opened up competition” and Itaú, Bradesco and Santander had “lower profits”. She attributes the supposed reduction in profit to the banking inclusion that took place on account of the Emergency Aid.
In this context, Mandelli says that Bolsonaro and his Minister of Economy, Paulo Guedes, “had the idea of Emergency Aid”, which is not true. The project that established the Emergency Aid of R$ 600, to be paid for three months, was an initiative of Congress after debate in society. The federal government even announced an aid of R$ 200, but in view of the Executive’s delay in formally presenting the text, Congress acted. To verify, we consulted congressional archives and professional press reports.
The relationship made by Mandelli between banking inclusion and the supposed reduction in bank profits is also untenable. The candidate says that “we saw Itaú, Bradesco, Santander have lower profits and Caixa and Banco do Brasil are full of money”. She also attributes the declines in profits to banking inclusion.
First, because it is not true that bank profits have fallen. The first installment of Emergency Aid was paid in April 2020 and Pix officially started operating in November of the same year.
Bank profits actually fell in 2020, compared to 2019. However, contrary to what the candidate says, Caixa and BB were also affected. The BC attributes the reduction to the pandemic and not to banking inclusion.
We consulted Dieese’s analysis. which points out that Caixa’s profit suffered the biggest drop, 37.5%. At Banco do Brasil, the reduction was 22.2%. Bradesco’s profit dropped 24.8%, Itaú’s, 28.9% and Santander’s, 5%. We also consulted the BC Financial Stability Report on the 2nd half of 2020. The report points out that banks’ profits fell by 26%. When explaining the fall, the document states: “The pandemic reversed the sequence of profitability recovery that had occurred since the 2015-2016 recession. The expectation for 2021 is for improvement”.
In 2021, Itaú’s profit rose 45.8%, Santander’s, 7%, and Bradesco’s, 34.7%, compared to the previous year. To obtain the data, we consulted the annual reports of each bank. In the same period, the net income of the Brazilian banking system increased 49%, as indicated in the most recent Financial Stability Report of the Central Bank, consulted by Comprova.
The bank inclusion cited by the candidate is true. When consulting BC files, we found a report that informs that, with Emergency Aid, 14 million people opened a bank account. But Mandelli’s link between banking inclusion and its supposed negative effects on banks is misleading. With more people using the banking system, the sector’s demand increases, as stated by José Márcio Camargo, a professor at PUC-Rio. “The more people demand the banks, the better. The bank sells financial services. The more people enter the bank and buy services from the bank, the better”, says Camargo.
Commenting that “Bolsonaro opened up competition”, Mandelli also cites the emergence of digital banks. However, it is necessary to clarify that the financial companies that emerged recently are also the product of the Central Bank’s policy. Known as fintechs, they are one of the Central Bank’s initiatives to promote banking competition. In Brazil, they have been regulated since April 2018 by the National Monetary Council (CMN) – Resolutions 4,656 and 4,657.
Candidate and businesswoman
The author of the video is Tati Mandelli, businesswoman, owner of the Tidelli furniture chain, in Bahia. Candidate for federal deputy from Bahia for the Republicans party, Mandelli is avowedly supporter of the current president of the Republic. Her profiles on social media are full of content favorable to Bolsonaro, his ministers and allies.
To the same extent, it is possible to see posts critical of former President Lula, the ministers of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), among others. Federal deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro (PL), son of the president, has several interactions with the candidate. The two have already recorded a video together for Tati Mandelli’s YouTube channel.
Why do we investigate?
We investigated suspicious content that went viral on social media about the presidential elections, the pandemic and the public policies of the federal government. The statements in the verified content follow the line of President Bolsonaro, candidate for reelection, and, when linked to the electoral process, pieces of disinformation, such as this one, can hinder the voter’s choice, which must be made from true data.
Recently, Projeto Comprova showed that it is not true that the G1 portal has reported that bankers would have closed an agreement with Lula to revoke Pix or that Bolsonaro created Pix.
I have over 8 years of experience in the news industry. I have worked for various news websites and have also written for a few news agencies. I mostly cover healthcare news, but I am also interested in other topics such as politics, business, and entertainment. In my free time, I enjoy writing fiction and spending time with my family and friends.
